A menor capacidade de consumo voluntário de alimentos das fêmeas atuais pode ser evidenciada na fase de lactação. As fêmeas são mais exigentes nutricionalmente, pois o consumo de ração durante o período de lactação pode se tornar insuficiente para atender às exigências de mantença e máxima produção de leite das porcas. Com isso, o consumo voluntário de ração deve ser estimulado para evitar mínima mobilização de reservas corporais das fêmeas, garantindo assim, maior produção de leite e menor perda de peso das fêmeas até o desmame. O uso de substâncias flavorizantes, edulcorantes e do butirato de sódio estão sendo estudados com o objetivo de estimular o consumo voluntário. O experimento foi conduzido com o objetivo de determinar o consumo voluntário e a performance de 14 fêmeas suínas de primeiro parto em lactação, alimentadas com ração de lactação sem o uso de aditivo (T1) e ração de lactação contendo butirato de sódio (T2), edulcorante (T3) e flavorizante (T4), além do desempenho da leitegada de cada fêmea. As dietas experimentais foram administradas a partir do dia seguinte ao parto, até o dia do desmame. Os parâmetros avaliados nas porcas foram: consumo alimentar voluntário, perda de peso durante a lactação, variação na espessura de toucinho, produção de leite e intervalo desmama-estro subseqüente. O ganho de peso dos leitões foi também analisado. Foi observado maior consumo (P<0,05), pelas fêmeas do tratamento controle (T1) quando comparado com os demais tratamentos (T2, T3, T4). Já em relação à produção de leite, não foi evidenciado efeito significativo para nenhum dos tratamentos (P>0,05), porém observa-se uma diferença numérica entre os tratamentos, favorável ao T2. Quando observado peso e espessura de toucinho na entrada da maternidade e no desmame e o intervalo desmama estro, também não foram observadas diferenças significativas (P<0,05). Quanto ao peso dos leitões não foram evidenciadas diferenças significativas. Assim, a adição de substâncias flavorizantes, edulcorante e butirato de sódio em fêmeas primíparas, nas concentrações utilizadas nesse estudo, não apresentou efeito para nenhuma das variáveis, exceto para o consumo voluntário das fêmeas, de modo que são necessários novos estudos para averiguar a interferência desta suplementação sobre o consumo voluntário de alimentos, levando em consideração as linhagens híbridas existentes no mercado. / Sows of modern genotypes have a lower feed intake, whereas nutritional requirements have increased, especially due to higher number of piglets born per sow and thus to higher milk yield. Especially during lactation, if nutritional demands of sows are not met, a high milk production can lead to a negative energy balance, and thus to both a decrease in body fat reserves and a lower body weight at weaning. An alternative to avoid excessive body reserves depletion is feed supplementation with substances which can increase voluntary feed intake, among them flavors, sweeteners and butyric acid. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of such substances towards voluntary feed intake, milk production and performance of sows, and on litters weight gain, after supplementation of sows feeding during lactation. Fourteen first-parturition sows were allocated in one of the following treatments: feeding without any supplement (T1); supplementation with either butyric acid (T2), sweeteners (T3) or flavors (T4). Experimental diets were given from the day after parturition until the weaning. The following parameters were evaluated in sows: feed intake, loss of weight during lactation, variation of backfat thickness, milk production and weaning-estrus interval. Weight gain of piglets was also recorded. Feed intake of sows allocated at T1 group was higher (P<0.05), in comparison with T2, T3 and T4 groups. There was a trend towards a higher milk production of T2 group, although results were not statistically significant (P>0.05). In conclusion, supplementation of primiparous sows diet with flavours, sweeteners and butyric acid, at least at levels utilized in this study, did not produced any changes on the evaluated parameters, except for the voluntary feed intake of sows. Thus, futher investigations on the effects of those additives on voluntary feed intake and satiety mechanisms of new lineages pigs must be conducted.

This thesis examines the different areas of agency theory including managerial discretion, corporate governance compliance, voluntary disclosure policies and regulation. The institutional setting for these studies will be the Alternative Investments Market (AIM) as this market provides a unique regulatory environment and distinctive corporate governance features that makes it suitable for analysis. Specifically, AIM, unlike its FCA-regulated main market counterpart, operates under a self-regulated environment, where application of the FCA rules and combined codes are voluntary. This allows great discretion in a firms operation leading to potential agency problems as mandatory disclosure is limited to price-sensitive information, allowing for the presence of information asymmetry. As well as agency theory, one of the main arcs of this thesis explores the role of Nomads. As principle regulator, these firms are charged with ensuring the compliance of their clients with the AIM rules, as well as ensuring the continued success of AIM itself. The first investigation creates a Nomad reputation index to test how the market responds when companies change to more reputable Nomads. To do this, event study methodology is utilised to examine the abnormal returns earned around Nomads switches. The key findings indicate that when managers switch-up to a more reputable Nomad, a proxy for managerial bonding, the market responds favourably, in spite of the costs associated with hiring a more reputable Nomad. Similarly, when managers make the unnecessary decision to switch to a Nomad of equal rank, the market responds negatively. As there is no intuitive advantage to switching to a Nomad of equal rank, it might therefore be seen as a costly and unnecessary move that will not improve the value of the firm. Therefore, the market reacts negatively, indicating the presence of market discipline as investors are punishing managers for making a decision perceived as unnecessary. The final analysis introduces the concept of ‘strict’ Nomads who are perceived to follow the AIM rules more closely than other Nomads. The reporting lag is used as a proxy and finds a positive relation with switches to a strict Nomad over a lenient one. The second study examines the determinant of corporate governance compliance with a focus on the effect of regulation. The findings document that regulation has not influenced the level of compliance, but rather there has been a convergence in governance standards over time given the increased awareness and demand for governance attributes. The findings also extend the Nomad reputation analysis with regards to governance and find a significant positive relation indicating Nomads influence governance standards as part of their monitoring role. The final study examines how the extent of voluntary disclosure is influenced by the company’s corporate governance attributes and the reputation of the Nomad. This study finds a positive relation between the level of voluntary disclosure, board independence and the presence of a nomination committee. Furthermore, this study reveals that voluntary earnings disclosure is a signal for bad news as the LS regression documents a negative relation between abnormal returns and the level of voluntary disclosure. This is corroborated in the event study where the announcement of a notification of results and the subsequent earnings announcement are associated with negative abnormal returns being earned.

The purposes of this study were twofold. The first was to construct a modified model of the voluntary turnover process that clarifies the antecedents of turnover intentions and turnover behavior. The second was to investigate empirically the proposed model's validity by assessing the influences of nine variables of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job search, intention to stay in the organization, and six demographic variables as potential predictors of employee voluntary turnover.

Local Content is an oil sector governance and sustainability policy that aims at check-mating the dominance of the foreign oil companies in host countries, and encouraging the participation of the local oil firms in the petroleum value-chain. It is a burgeoning concept applied in the upstream petroleum contracts in the developing petro states. This study was conducted to examine the local content accounting, accountability and governance of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the five major International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria (Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Total and Agip). The soft and hard accountability of the two principal actors were determined. The work drew on the Chatham House Guidelines for Good Governance in Emerging Oil and Gas Producers (2013) to derive its conceptual and analytical models. The study used the convergent parallel design and a combination of the three accounting paradigms to draw its conclusions. Thematic analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics including the post hoc Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests with Bonferroni Corrected Alpha, and the logistic regression tests were used. The study also applied the mechanistic content analysis methodology on fifty sustainability reports of the selected IOCs in line with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) sustainability reporting guidelines. Disclosure index and paired-samples t-test were used to determine the existence and trends in the IOCs’ local content disclosure practices before and after the enactment of the Nigeria’s local content law. The study found the local content policy to be an accountabilitybased sustainability driver in the Nigerian petroleum sector. Although the NCDMB’s performance was favourable to a large extent, the study found that corruption, fronting, and non-disclosure of the beneficial ownership of some oil firms remained the major challenges of local content in Nigeria. An expectation gap between the Board and the stakeholders on the financial accountability was established. The study found moderate and consistent local content disclosure indices of the periods before and after the Nigeria’s local content law, but higher volumetric disclosure in the period after the law, signifying likely impact of the local content law on the IOC’s voluntary disclosure. It was recommended that the Board should tighten up its regulatory responsibilities and avoid questionable practices. It was also suggested that the Nigerian local content rules should incorporate more incentives such as unringfencing and crossfencing of upstream costs to encourage more investment. The study also suggested that the accounting standard-setting bodies should issue dedicated accounting standards or expand the existing IFRS 8 and IAS 21 to comprehensively address the preparation and presentation of local content information in the annual financial statements.

Bakgrund Börsnoterade bolag väljer idag att lämna ut en stor mängdfrivilliga upplysningar trots att dessa kan medföra kostnader samt konkurrensnackdelar. En trolig förklaringsfaktor till detta är enligt tidigare studier ledningens kompetenssignalerande.Tanken är att begåvade företagsledare vill stärka sitt egetpersonliga varumärke och marknadsföra sin egen kompetens viaupplysningarna. Med dessa antaganden i åtanke skulle det vara rimligt att anta att det sker förändringar i mängden frivilligaupplysningar när en ny VD eller CFO tillträder och vill sända signaler samt sätta sin egen personliga prägel på företagets externa kommunikation. Syfte Syftet med denna studie är att förklara hur ett byte av VD eller CFO påverkar företags frivilliga upplysningar under räkenskapsåret efter bytet. Metod Denna kvantitativa studie genomfördes med en deduktiv ansats samt en tvärsnittsdesign. Slutsats Studien visade på att ett CFO-byte resulterade i en ökad mängdfrivilliga upplysningar. Studien visade dessutom även att en externt rekryterad CFO leder till fler frivilliga upplysningar än en internt rekryterad CFO. Därutöver kunde studien också visa på vissa indikationer gällande ett positivt samband mellan VD:s ägarandel i företaget samt en ökning av de frivilliga upplysningarna under kommande räkenskapsår. Motsvarande samband för CFO gick dock inte att identifiera. / Background Listed companies choose to voluntary disclose a lot of information even though it could entail costs and competitive disadvantages. A likely explanatory factor for this in earlier studies has been the managements wish to signal their competence. The thought is that gifted managers wish to improve their own personal trademark and to promote their own competence via the voluntary disclosures. With these assumptions in mind, it would be fair to assume that changes in the amount of voluntary disclosures will occur when a new CEO or CFO steps in and wishes to signal competence and add theirown personal touch on the company’s external communication. Purpose The purpose of this study is to explain how a change of CEO or CFO will affect the corporation’s voluntary disclosures in the following fiscal year. Method This quantitative study was performed with a deductive approach and a cross-sectional design. Conclusion The study showed that a change of CFO resulted in an increased amount of voluntary disclosures by the companies. The study also found that an externally recruited CFO will disclose more than an internally recruited CFO. In addition the study also showed indications of a positive relation regarding a CEO’s share of the company and an increase of the voluntary disclosures int he next fiscal year. The same relation could not be observed to also apply for CFO’s.

Master of Public Health - MPH / Background: About 22.4 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2008 out of which women constitute approximately 57%. Namibia is one of the highly affected countries with a national HIV prevalence of 17.8% among women attending antenatal clinics. Antiretroviral medications have become available in Namibia since 2002 and presently all district hospitals and some health centres provide ARVs to those in need. Namibia is rated as one of the few countries in sub-Sahara Africa with a high coverage of ART, with 80% of those in need of ART receiving the treatment. An increasing trend has been observed whereby HIV+ women on ARV are becoming pregnant. Little is known about the attitude, knowledge and behavior of these women towards family planning and use of contraceptives and what barriers they may be facing in accessing these services.Aim: To determine the factors affecting the utilization of family planning services by HIV+ pregnant women receiving PMTCT services. Methodology: The study was a cross sectional study using both quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the critical elements of knowledge, attitude and perceptions of the study participants towards family planning services. The study also assessed the health system and other factors that impact on the use of contraceptives by HIV+ women. It was conducted in northern Namibia at Oshakati Health centre among randomly selected pregnant HIV+ women attending for PMTCT services.Results: Among the 113 respondents, who participated in the study, 97.3% knew at least one method of family planning but only 53.6% actually used any method of contraception prior to current pregnancy. Among the 46.4% who did not use any contraception, the reasons often cited for non-use were because they wanted a baby (52%), spouse objection (10%), being afraid of the effects (14%) and other reasons such as belief, culture and distance to travel to the health facility. 88% of the respondents indicated a willingness to use contraceptives after current pregnancy and expressed general satisfaction with services at the health centre while asking for more information on family planning services.Conclusion: HIV+ women have high awareness on some contraceptives but use of contraceptives is not as high as many of them have a desire to have children for self esteem and leave a legacy for the future. Knowledge of the risks of pregnancy on HIV+ woman may be limited and there is a need to improve educational intervention in this regard as well as integrate family planning services into all HIV/AIDS services. / South Africa

Magister Public Health - MPH / Background: One study on estimating rates of mother to child transmission of HIV (MTCT) in program settings in Zambia showed significant reduction in the MTCT rate with some specific prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) interventions. Prolonged breastfeeding and mixed feeding practices by HIV positive mothers increased the MTCT rate by more than double by the time the infant reached 6 to12 months of age. Although the study did not assess the quality of PMTCT counselling in antenatal care settings, literature shows that poor quality of counselling on PMTCT reduces the effectiveness of PMTCT interventions. Study aim: To evaluate the quality of PMTCT counselling offered to pregnant women attending antenatal care (ANC) services in four public health facilities in Kitwe, Copperbelt province of Zambia. Study design and data collection: This was a cross sectional descriptive study. Data was generated using qualitative research methods including document analysis and individual interviews with 22 participants using non-participant observations, client exit interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) to collect data. The study participants were ANC attendees and PMTCT providers. Two FGDs were conducted with a total of 98 counselling observations done and 16 ANC client exit interviews. Client exit interviews were done immediately after the mothers had undergone PMTCT counselling. Results: Content for group health education (GHE) varied across the facilities. Individual pre-test, post-test and follow up counselling sessions were very short and lacked depth. A total of 41 (83.7%) pre-test observations took between 1 and 5 minutes to be conducted. In addition, several key topics including major modes of HIV transmission, MTCT and the "window period" were omitted. The counsellors' interpersonal skills were generally good but they did not consistently summarize the main issues. The 16 mothers interviewed had limited knowledge of PMTCT with only one client knowing all the MTCT modes correctly. Discussion: Quality of PMTCT counselling did not meet expectations. With a lot of key topics omitted, outcomes of PMTCT interventions may not be as good as expected. Facilities are faced with serious staff shortages and limitations with space. The few members of staff available are overworked and are not able to provide quality PMTCT counselling. Conclusion: While the PMTCT uptake was good and clients felt satisfied, the quality of PMTCT counselling is compromised. There is need to improve it and ensure optimal effectiveness of PMTCT services.

Cette thèse analyse l’impact de la réglementation des divulgations environnementales ainsi que l’utilité de ces informations pour les investisseurs, partie prenante susceptible d’influencer l’entreprise en l’amenant à produire l’information environnementale utile, éventuellement imposée par la réglementation. Notre recherche s’appuie sur une approche quantitative basée sur le traitement des scores de divulgation environnementale au travers de modèles de régression ordinaire et censuré. Les scores de divulgation environnementale ont été calculés à partir d’une grille de mesure élaborée par nos soins et utilisée pour l’analyse de 121 entreprises européennes. Les résultats montrent que la réglementation des divulgations environnementales a un impact positif direct et induit sur le niveau de divulgation environnementale des entreprises. Par contre, l’impact des recommandations gouvernementales ou émanant d’organismes professionnels est identiquement faible. Les résultats montrent également que l’utilité des divulgations environnementales pour les investisseurs n’est pas uniforme : elle dépend de l’opacité des divulgations financières de l’entreprise, de son exposition aux risques environnementaux et de la structure de son actionnariat. Enfin, dans un contexte où l’information environnementale publiée est largement, voire totalement volontaire, les résultats montrent que les entreprises orientent leur communication environnementale en fonction des parties prenantes qu’elles identifient comme prioritaires. / Using disclosure scores to assess the level of environmental information provided by 121 randomly selected European listed companies, this research has two major goals. First, it examines whether environmental information is useful to investors. Second, it analyzes whether it is worth regulating environmental disclosures. Results reveal that the usefulness of environmental disclosures for investors is not uniform. It varies among firms, increasing with (i) exposure to environmental risks; (ii) ownership dispersion; (iii) the level of financial opacity. Furthermore, results also reveal that regulation has a direct and induced favorable impact on corporate environmental disclosure. After controlling for the usual determinants of environmental disclosures, we show that firms subject to a law that regulates environmental reporting disclose more than those domiciled in countries that have developed guidelines only. Finally, in a context where environmental information is mainly voluntary, we show that firms reserve their environmental communication for their preferred stakeholders.

This study was undertaken in the Kingsway informal settlement, which is situated in Ekhurhuleni on the East Rand. This is a poor community as many residents are unemployed and unable to obtain adequate healthcare especially for HIV/AIDS. The perceived high rate of HIV infection, as well as, the apparent high death rate due to AIDS was my major concern. Intervention and help were my main intention. I was motivated to embark on this study to be empowered and informed about treatment processes of HIV/AIDS. The study was intended to use living theory action research to investigate the need for establishing a Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) centre. For action in the real environment a research team was formed from volunteers. The relevant influential persons in the community were consulted and the required permission obtained to embark on the study. This was also to ensure that there was co-operation from community leaders. Proper documents, giving permission, were obtained after formal requests were made. Ethical guidelines were followed in this research. I started by stating my values before the research. During the process I showed how my values were transformed by various activities that were intended to educate me. These changes were indications of my development. At the end of the study I indicated how my initial values were improved or transformed, and what new values I gained. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Psychology / unrestricted

No abstract available. Copyright / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Accounting / unrestricted