Evaluating the share performance of socially responsible investment on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

Socially responsible investing (SRI) integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues into the investment decision-making process. Growing ESG concerns and the uncovering of corporate scandals have catalysed the substantial growth in SRI portfolios worldwide. Notwithstanding its increasing popularity, barriers to further SRI growth have been identified. Traditional investing practices suggest that theoretically, SRI may underperform conventional investment strategies. However, despite the vast amount of literature on SRI, empirical studies have yielded a mixture of results regarding fund performance. The JSE SRI Index was launched in 2004 to promote transparent business practices. It was discontinued at the end of 2015 succeeded by a new Responsible Investment Index established by the JSE in association with FTSE Russell. The aim of the research was to evaluate the share performance of the JSE SRI Index from 2004-2015. Additionally, the indices were categorised by environmental impact to further analyse disparity among share returns. The study was also divided into two sub-periods, 2004-2009 and 2010-2015, with the latter following the endorsement of integrated reporting by the King III Code as a listing requirement in 2010. A single-factor Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) was used to assess differences in risk-adjusted returns. Engle-Granger and Johansen tests were employed to explore the possibility of a cointegrating relationship between the indices. No significant difference between returns was observed for 2004-2009, with the SRI Index exhibiting statistically significant inferior risk-adjusted returns for the latter half of the study. Overall, a significant difference between share returns was found, with CAPM results suggesting that the JSE SRI Index underperformed the All Share Index by -2.33% per annum throughout the time span of the study. Engle-Granger and Johansen test results indicated the existence of a cointegrating relationship over the first half of the study. However, there was no cointegration between the two indices for 2004-2015, which may be attributed to no significant relationship found for the latter years. Results support the notion that investors pay the price to invest ethically on the JSE. Inferior risk-adjusted returns associated with SRI may be a major barrier to its development in South African markets

The Second Sabbath Afternoon Mission Symposium

The transcription of this meeting was published in the Review and Herald, June 27, 1946, page 251. Duration: 1:47:38 (0:0) Unknown person, possibly A. W. Cormack, introduces Mrs. O. E. Thompson (0:16) Mrs. Thompson plays the harp and sings (7:01) E. D. Dick does a roll call of all the various nations represented (14:25) W. P. Bradley introduces M. C. Warren of China (15:23) M. C. Warren discusses his experiences in China (25:57) J. I. Robison introduces Mrs. Herbert Hanson, housekeeper for Haile Selassie (26:46) Mrs. Herbert Hanson (36:32) T. J. Michael introduces J. M. Hnatyshyn (37:41) J. M. Hnatyshyn speaks about his time is Africa (48:20) E. D. Dick introduces special music (48:59) Group from Southern African Division singers introduce their song, the National Song of the Bantu People of Southern Africa (51:10) Group begins singing (53:34) E. D. Dick introduces Pastor G. D. King, president of the South England Conference, London, England (53:51) G. D. King speaks (1:07:41) H. T. Elliott says Dick missed a country during roll call: Texas. Crowd laughs. He introduces J. C. Culpepper, Publishing Department, Inter-American Conference (1:08:46) J. C. Culpepper speaks (1:21:33) E. E. Roenfelt introduces R. E. Hare, president of the Australasian Conference (1:22:14) R. E. Hare speaks (1:37:53) E. D. Dick introduces two more individuals who want to contribute to the World Mission Program (1:38:13) G. G. Ritter, president of the Sau Paulo Conference in Brazil says his conference will contribute $1000 (1:40:04) J. R. Passos, of the Parana-Santo-Catarina Mission of South Brazil, says his conference will contribute$500 (1:42:35) E. D. Dick wraps up (1:43:00) W. H. Branson announces Hymn 182, “It Must be the Breaking of the Day

Modeling Individual Animal Histories with Multistate Capture–Recapture Models

International audienc

Synthetic biology for the directed evolution of protein biocatalysts:navigating sequence space intelligently

The amino acid sequence of a protein affects both its structure and its function. Thus, the ability to modify the sequence, and hence the structure and activity, of individual proteins in a systematic way, opens up many opportunities, both scientifically and (as we focus on here) for exploitation in biocatalysis. Modern methods of synthetic biology, whereby increasingly large sequences of DNA can be synthesised de novo, allow an unprecedented ability to engineer proteins with novel functions. However, the number of possible proteins is far too large to test individually, so we need means for navigating the ‘search space’ of possible protein sequences efficiently and reliably in order to find desirable activities and other properties. Enzymologists distinguish binding (K (d)) and catalytic (k (cat)) steps. In a similar way, judicious strategies have blended design (for binding, specificity and active site modelling) with the more empirical methods of classical directed evolution (DE) for improving k (cat) (where natural evolution rarely seeks the highest values), especially with regard to residues distant from the active site and where the functional linkages underpinning enzyme dynamics are both unknown and hard to predict. Epistasis (where the ‘best’ amino acid at one site depends on that or those at others) is a notable feature of directed evolution. The aim of this review is to highlight some of the approaches that are being developed to allow us to use directed evolution to improve enzyme properties, often dramatically. We note that directed evolution differs in a number of ways from natural evolution, including in particular the available mechanisms and the likely selection pressures. Thus, we stress the opportunities afforded by techniques that enable one to map sequence to (structure and) activity in silico, as an effective means of modelling and exploring protein landscapes. Because known landscapes may be assessed and reasoned about as a whole, simultaneously, this offers opportunities for protein improvement not readily available to natural evolution on rapid timescales. Intelligent landscape navigation, informed by sequence-activity relationships and coupled to the emerging methods of synthetic biology, offers scope for the development of novel biocatalysts that are both highly active and robust

Scripture and reform

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