Doctor Legum - LLD / South Africa

Cette thèse contient trois essais expérimentaux étudiant les causes possibles de l’inefficience des marchés des actifs. L’efficacité des marchés financiers est cruciale pour une bonne performance de l’économie dans son ensemble. La recherche en finance comportementale a montré que les investisseurs ne se comportent pas toujours de manière parfaitement rationnelle. Il est donc important de bien comprendre comment les individus créent leurs croyances concernant les décisions financières, ce qui les influence, comment elles affectent les marchés financiers, et donc l’efficacité des marchés.Les croyances individuelles relatives à une décision financière sont influencées par la façon dont les actifs sont déterminés. Le premier essai étudie l’impact du degré d’asymétrie des actifs échangés sur : premièrement, le développement du marché global, deuxièmement, la façon dont les individus perçoivent les actifs risqués en fonction de leurs préférences de risque, et troisièmement, la stabilité de la perception du risque de ces actifs dans le temps. Nos résultats suggèrent que l’asymétrie des actifs n’influence que marginalement le développement du marché, mais a un effet direct sur la perception du risque. Les décisions des agents qui interagissent sur les marchés financiers sont influencées par leurs préférences, leurs traits de personnalité et leurs biais comportementaux. Nous supposons que le profil personnel influe aussi bien sur le comportement individuel sur le marché, tels que l’activité d’échange, l’accumulation de stock et la performance, que sur le développement du marché global, comme la dynamique du prix ou le nombre d’actifs échangés. C’est l’objectif du deuxième essai. Nous constatons que les traits de personnalité sont les meilleurs prédicateurs de comportement du marché, à la fois individuel et global. Le troisième essai examine l’impact des incitations concurrentielles sur l’augmentation des anomalies de marché. Dans ce cas, allonger l’échelle de temps sur laquelle les comparaisons des performances sont basées, contribue-t-il à améliorer l’efficience des marchés financiers ? Nous constatons que le bonus à l’échelle de temps étendue aidera à réduire les anomalies du marché et à améliorer l’efficacité du marché financier. / This thesis contains three essays that focus on asset market inefficiency using the experimental method. Financial market efficiency is crucial for good performance of the economy as a whole. Research in behavioral finance has shown that investors do not always behave fully rationally and systematically violate the assumptions of the traditional framework. It is therefore important to fully understand how individuals create their expectations regarding financial decisions, what influences them, how they affect the global market, and therefore financial market efficiency.Individual expectations about a financial decision are influenced by the manner assets are determined. The first essay investigates the impact of skewness of traded assets on first, aggregate market development, second, the way individuals perceive risky assets according to their risk preferences, and third, the stability of the assets’ risk perception in time. Our results suggest that assets’ skewness influences only marginally the asset market development, but directly effects the individual risk perception.Agents interacting in financial markets are not fully rational. Their decisions are influenced by their preferences, personality traits and the degree they are prone to behavioral biases. We suppose that the personal profile influences individual market behavior, such as trading activity, stock accumulation and performance, and also the aggregate market development, such as price dynamic or turnover of traded assets. This is the objective of the second essay. We find that the personality traits are the best predictors of both individual and aggregate market behavior.The third essay examines whether competitive incentives do contribute to the increase of mispricing in financial markets. If they do, does the extended time horizon of performance comparison help to improve the control against excessive risk-taking and therefore improve financial market efficiency. We find that the bonuses with extended time horizon help to diminish mispricing and improve the financial market efficiency.

L’étude de la prise de décision sous incertitude en psychologie vise à identifier les processus permettant à l’individu d’atteindre un but en sélectionnant une conduite parmi plusieurs alternatives, lorsqu’il existe une incertitude quant aux conséquences respectives de ces différentes conduites. Nos hypothèses se centrent sur le rôle des fonctions exécutives et du raisonnement logico-mathématique chez l’enfant de 5 à 11 ans. Nous abordons cette thématique sous l’angle des approches différentielle (variabilité inter- et intra-individuelle) et développementale (changement micro- et macrogénétique). Quatre études sont présentées. Les deux premières soulignent le rôle de la mémoire de travail dans la résolution de la tâche du casino chez l’enfant de 8 à 11 ans, et émettent quelques réserves quant au rôle des fonctions exécutives à cette même épreuve chez les enfants de 5 à 7 ans (approche longitudinale). La troisième étude vise à étudier les stratégies des enfants de 5 et 6 ans à l’épreuve de quantification des probabilités à partir d’une analyse conjointe des variations individuelles et situationnelles. Nous identifions plusieurs stratégies correspondant à des niveaux de développement distincts, et nous montrons que les enfants les plus âgés témoignent d’une plus grande flexibilité stratégique en réponse aux variations situationnelles. Enfin, la dernière étude cherche à rendre compte des conduites des enfants de 6 à 11 ans à la tâche du casino à partir du modèle de la valence espérée. La perspective est idiographique et se focalise d’abord sur un modèle individuel, avant d’aboutir à une comparaison des seuls individus chez lesquels ce modèle individuel semble pertinent. / The study of decision making under uncertainty in psychology attempts to identify the various processes by which individuals select a course of action among several alternative possibilities in order to reach a particular goal, when the outcomes of this course of action are uncertain. We hypothesize that executive function and logical-mathematical reasoning may play a role in decision making under uncertainty in children aged 5 to 11. We adopt an individual differences approach (between- end within-individual variability) combined with a developmental approach (micro- ans macrogenetic change). Four studies have been conducted. The first two studies underline working memory role in a gambling task in children aged 8 to 11, and cast some doubts on executive function implication in this gambling task in children aged 5 to 7 (test/retest approach). The third study aims to identify the strategies children aged 5 to 6 use in a probability quantification task. By considering both individual and situational variations, we identify various strategies that relates to distinct developmental levels. We show that older children display a greater strategic flexibility in response to situational variations. Finally, the fourth study seeks to investigate decision making in a gambling task with the Expected Valence model in children aged 6 to 11. Our idiographic approach first focuses on an individual model, and then compares the only children whose decisions were appropriately captured by the individual model.

Globalisation is an inescapable fact. National economies are no longer immune to external influences and cannot be insulated from global effects. South African construction companies globalise as a result of expansion, diversification, deepening of trade and to eliminate the cyclical nature of the construction market within South Africa. A literature review revealed the following risks for South African construction companies when globalising into Southern Africa: competition from other international construction companies, the lack of political stability in the region, fraud and corruption, conflicting cultures of varying regions, the impact of foreign exchange, under-researched and documented industries and lack of quality assurance and the impact of HIV/AIDS amongst other risks. In contrast, funding and foreign aid, the superior management capability and information technology that South African construction companies possess, the opportunities to form associations and joint ventures with other construction companies to access markets and the possibility of advance payments are amongst the opportunities that can be exploited in the Southern African region. Sub-Saharan Africa is viewed as one of the world's poorest and under-developed regions. The region has alarming HIV/AIDS infection rates prevalent. However, it is a region rich in natural resources and tourism potential. The countries analysed in this treatise for the risks and potential opportunities for South African construction companies are: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A common trend, such as, political instability, under-developed infrastructure, massive housing, educational and health facility needs, ample supply of unskilled and semi-skilled labour and a high dependency on foreign aid is dominant in most Southern African countries. Conversely, opportunities exist to upgrade infrastructure, address the massive housing, schools and hospitals need, exploitation of tourism potential and the ability to form joint ventures with local construction companies in an attempt to transfer skills, share risks and overcome cultural barriers. Interviews with representatives of leading construction companies emphasised risks such as late and non-payment, logistics, foreign exchange fluctuations, culture differences (including language disparity), bureaucracy, health of workforce and labour productivity. With very few exceptions, most respondents had similar views on risks perceived in particular countries. Interviewees highlighted opportunities such as higher returns, access to larger markets, earning foreign exchange, the region's need for housing, schools and hospitals, availability of donor and foreign aid, superior management capabilities of South African contractors, reconstruction and rehabilitation of dilapidated buildings and tourism demand. With very few exceptions, most respondents had similar views on opportunities perceived in particular countries. In terms of risks, opportunities and statistical data, the countries were ranked as follows, with first being most favourable and the last mentioned as least favourable: Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Angola, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi. A way forward is presented by means of "words of advice" and rules of thumb from the representatives of the leading construction companies in South Africa who have already tested the waters. / Thesis (MSc (Project Management))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Construction Economics / unrestricted

The objective of this study is to investigate the trends in relative contribution each selected factor makes to the chance of a child’s death over time in South Africa for children born 5 years preceding 1997 and 5 years preceding 2002. Attention was paid to the role played by socio-economic factors, biological and maternal factors, environmental factors, nutrient deficiency factors and health seeking behaviour factors. The study investigates whether the association of a specific factor to under-5 mortality persist over time. Data from the 1997 October Household Survey and the 2002 General Household Survey were used. Births that occurred in the five years preceding each survey were analysed in relation to the survival of the child and socio-economic factors, biological and maternal factors, environmental factors, nutrient deficiency factors and health seeking behaviour factors. Logistic regression was used to determine the relative contribution of each factor for the two periods under review. Under-5 mortality was significantly associated with eight factors during 1993-1997 period namely; mother’s education, mother’s place of residence, sex, birth order, birth interval, mother’s age at the time of delivery of the subject child, nutrient deficiency and place of delivery. However, during the 1998-2002 period only five factors were significantly associated with under-5 mortality. These were mother’s education, sex, birth interval, type of dwelling and place of delivery. This suggests changing patterns in factors associated with under-5 mortality between the two birth cohorts: 1993-1997 and the 1998-2002 birth cohorts. / Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Sociology / unrestricted

Plant cysteine proteinase inhibitors or also called phytocystatins inhibit the action of cysteine proteinases in plants. These proteinases are involved in many developmental processes by degrading proteins. In this study possible effects of an exogenous oryzacystatin-I (OC-I) expressed in transformed tobacco has been investigated. By challenging OC-I expressing and non-expressing tobacco with drought and heat stress, OC-I transcription and translation were not affected in OC-I expressing plants and plant extracts from stressed plants containing the inhibitor inhibited papain activity in vitro. Further, plant growth and photosynthesis was not greatly different under the selected growth conditions in both plant types under stress and non-stress conditions. However, OC-I expressing plants showed slightly lower photosynthetic rate, were shorter and had a higher lower dry mass production under non-stress condition. By applying cDNA Representational Difference Analysis (cDNA-RDA) to detect differentially expressed genes in the two types of plants, a gene coding for the light harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding protein gene (lhcb1) of photosystem II (LHC II) was isolated from non-OCI expressing plants. Northern blot analysis showed lower transcript accumulation of the lhcb gene in OCI-expressing plants both under non-stress and stress conditions, which was accompanied by lower chlorophyll content in OC-I expressing plants. Furthermore, plants benefited from OC-I expression by protection of a variety of expressed proteins against degradation. Identification of possible target cysteine proteinases for OC-I in tobacco resulted in the isolation, cloning and characterization of two new papain-like cysteine proteinases from tobacco designated NtCP1 and NtCP2. NtCP1 was expressed only in senescent leaves and it was not induced in mature green leaves upon exposure to drought or heat stress. NtCP1 has therefore a possible potential as a developmental senescence marker in tobacco. In contrast, NtCP2, which was expressed in mature green leaves, has a high similarity to KDEL-tailed cysteine proteinases that are involved in programmed cell death. Both drought and heat decreased NtCP2 transcript abundance in mature green leaves. Overall, this study has provided evidence that expression of exogenous OC-I does not significantly improve plant performance in tobacco in terms of physiological traits under drought and heat stress but provides protection in terms of stability of protein expression by possibly interacting with endogenous tobacco cysteine proteinases. Further detailed studies are suggested on the interaction of endogenous cysteine proteinases and exogenous phytocystatins to elucidate in more detail the type of interaction. Copyright 2006, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Beyene, G 2006, Gene expression and plant performance in oryzacystatin-I expressing transformed tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv Samsun) plants under abiotic stress, PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-12052006-144409 / > / Thesis (PhD (Botany))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Plant Science / unrestricted

The main result of underground mining extraction is creating of large underground voids (mine stopes). These empty openings are typically backfilled with an engineering cementitious material called cemented paste backfill (CPB). The main purpose of CPB application in underground mining is to provide stability and ensure the safety of underground openings, maximize ore recovery, and also provide an environmental-friendly means of underground disposal of potential acid generating tailings. CPB is a mixture of mine tailings, cement binder and water. CPB has a complex geotechnical behaviour when poured into mine voids. This is because of the different thermal (T), hydraulic (H), mechanical (M) and chemical coupled processes and interactions that take place in CPB soon after placement. In addition to these THMC behaviours, various external factors, such as stope geometry, drainage condition and arching effects add more complexity to its behaviour. In order to acquire a full understanding of CPB behaviour, there is a need to consider all of these THMC factors and processes together. So far, there has not been any study that addresses this research need. Indeed, fundamental knowledge of the THMC behaviour of CPB provides a key means for designing safe and cost-effective backfill structures, as well as optimizing mining cycles and productivity of mines. Innovative experimental tools and CPB testing methods have been developed and adopted in this research to fulfill the objectives of this research. In the first phase of the study, experiments with high columns are developed to study the THMC behaviour of CPB from early to advanced ages with respect to height of the column and curing time. The column experiments simulate the mine stope and filling sequence and provide an opportunity to study external factors, such as evaporation, on the THMC behaviour of CPB. However, an important factor is the overburden pressure from the stress due to self-weight that cannot be simulated through column experiments. Therefore, in the second phase of this study, a novel THMC curing under stress apparatus is developed to study the THMC behaviour of CPB under various pressures due to the self-weight of the CPB, drainage conditions, and filling rate and sequence. Comprehensive instrumentation and geotechnical testing are carried out to obtain fundamental knowledge on the THMC behaviour of CPB in different curing conditions from early to advanced ages. The results of these studies show that the THMC properties of CPB are coupled. Important parameters, such as curing stress, self-desiccation due to cement hydration, temperature, pore water chemistry, and mineralogical and chemical properties of the tailings, have significant influence on the shear strength and compressive strength development of CPB. Factors such as evaporation and drying iii shrinkage can also affect the hydro-mechanical properties of CPB. The curing conditions (such as curing stress, drainage and filling rate) also has significant impact on CPB behaviour and performance. The THMC interactions and the degree of influence of each factor should be included in designing backfill structures and planning mining cycles. This innovative curing under stress technique can be replaced the conventional curing of CPB (curing under zero stress and no THMC loadings), in order to optimize CPB mechanical strength assessment, increase mine safety and enhance the productivity.

This thesis acknowledges the presence of a clear note of affirmation in some novels of the mid-Twentieth Century. Finding a similar affirmation in Albert Camus' essays, The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel, it attempts to demonstrate a basic agreement between the essays and a limited selection of such novels. It then attempts to support this conclusion by examination of two novels in some detail. It considers that this relationship arises naturally from the artists' mutual perception of man's perilous condition in the modern world, and that it does not imply the necessity of conscious imitation of Camus' thoughts on the absurd. Nevertheless, since this thesis intends to show that the affirmation in the novels arises from an attitude that Camus termed "absurdist" and inheres in a way of life that he termed "absurd," such novels, for the purpose of this study, are called "Absurd." Chapter One attempts to explain man's existential anxiety as a spiritual state germane to his condition as an intelligent being in an obscure universe, and to describe how this natural anxiety, painfully intensified in a godless, materialistic age, has resulted in spiritual sterility and paralysis of creative action. Of this condition, such novelists as Malcolm Lowry, Joseph Heller, William Golding, Lawrence Durrell and William Styron seem acutely aware. In addition, it attempts to define Camus' uses of the term "absurd," and to explain the nature of the absurd life—the life of absurd rebellion—that he advances as the only-positive answer to the challenge of the times. While recognizing that the diversity evident among these novels attests to their nature as independent creations, Chapter One attempts to establish their basic agreement with Camus' ideas of the absurd, and to trace the existence among them of broad similarities. Finally, by examination of values implied, it notes that these authors seem to arrive at Camus' conclusion that "everything is permitted," limited, as Camus limits it, by the necessity of individual responsibility. Chapters two and three, detailed examinations of the absurd in two novels, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano and Joseph Heller's Catch-22, attempt to clarify the nature of the authors' protest by pointing out what forces, both external and internal, are attacked. As this process involves an analysis of the nature and results of destructive escapism, whether individual escape into alcoholism or mass escape into meaningless conformity or excessive rationalism, it suggests also the urgency of the individual struggle for the "lucid awareness" that Camus demands. In particular, these chapters hope to clarify the affirmation implied by the individual liberation from illusion and anxiety to defiant joy in conscious living. The Conclusion restates the fundamental agreement between the controlling themes of these novels and the tenets of the absurd delineated by Camus. Also, it demonstrates the diversity of method and approach by which the two novels deal with common themes and arrive at affirmative conclusions. Finally, it warns against the interpretation of this fiction as the expression of a doctrine for universal salvation. The Absurd Novel is not, therefore, what Camus would call disparagingly a "thesis-novel" ; at most, like The Myth of Sisyphus, it issues a positive challenge to the individual in the modem world. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This paper tries to find out whether a short ban on sales of liquors reduced the harmful use of alcohol with respect to motor vehicle accidents. I make use of short (two weeks) alcohol prohibition which was imposed by the Ministry of Health Care in the Czech Republic in September 2012 aiming to stop the deadly wave of methanol poisoning. To estimate the effect of prohibition on the number of road traffic accidents, I exploit the methodology of differences-in-differences. I use daily data about traffic accidents from the Czech Republic (treatment group) and from neighboring countries such as Austria, Germany and Poland (control group). The result suggests that there is no significant drop in term of road traffic accidents.

In 2015 Skolverket presented a study which said that new editions of textbooks are too alike the old editions, and therefore have difficulties to meet the educational requirements set by Lgy11. The aim of this study is therefore to analyze how the textbooks Under samma himmel and Religion: för gymnasiet 1 portrays Judaism, Christianity and Islam to see if they reach a specific goal of Lgy11. The method that is used in this study to analyze these textbooks is a content analysis. The result of the study showed that both textbooks did not reach the goals of Lgy11. Christianity got the most space in the textbook and was portrayed as a heterogeneous religion, which may have its explanation in the exceptional position the religion has in Lgy11. Judaism although was portrayed as a Swedish religion due to lack of information about Judaism abroad, and Islam was portrayed as a homogenous religion due to lack of extended information about its different groups and ways to interpreted the religion. Therefore, the textbooks do not meet the requirements of Lgy11 and needs to be supplemented to meet the educational goals.