Invest like a woman: an analysis of investment performance in South Africa based on gender

Includes bibliographical references.The rise in popularity of behavioural finance has illustrated how investors do not always act and invest rationally, and as such do not always maximise their utility. Researchers in the field of behavioural finance have found that certain behavioural biases that exist in humans can explain these deviations from rationality by investors, and that certain biases manifest differently between male and female investors. Men have been found to be more overconfident in their skill in investing than women, and to rate their chances of investing successfully as greater than women rate their chances of investing successfully. Further, men have been found to display higher risk tolerances than women, stronger self attribution and self-efficacy biases, as well as a propensity to overtrade when compared to women

An evaluation of the proposed IFRS 4 Phase II measurement methodology: the impact of South African life insurers

Includes bibliographical references.Nearly 20 years after inception, the Insurance Accounting project of the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) is nearing completion. The recently published June 2013 International Financial Reporting Standard 4 (IFRS 4) Exposure Draft represents a likely picture of the future of global insurance financial reporting and it is important that insurers begin to understand and prepare for the changes it will bring. This dissertation explores the key principles and likely impacts of the IFRS 4 Phase II standard, in its current proposed form, in the South African life insurance context. In particular, the proposed IFRS 4 Phase II approach to profit reporting is contrasted with the current Financial Soundness Valuation (FSV) approach for simple illustrative term and endowment insurance products. The results of this comparison form the basis for a discussion of the impacts which the new profit reporting standard will have on insurance contract liabilities and hence profit profiles over time, and an assessment of whether the changes embodied in the new standard better meet the objectives of insurance financial reporting and the needs of the users of financial statements. This dissertation focusses on key areas where there is a high degree of certainty in the exposure draft, and touches more lightly on those areas where change is still expected. The findings indicate that IFRS 4 will result in insurer financial reporting being more principles-based, better meeting the requirements of fundamental financial reporting characteristics and being more comparable with insurer financial reporting internationally. These findings support the conclusion that a move to IFRS 4 for insurer financial reporting in South African will be beneficial to users of financial statements in making economic decisions

Inferring the diameter of a biopolymer from its stretching response

We investigate the stretching response of a thick polymer model by means of extensive stochastic simulations. The computational results are synthesized in an analytic expression that characterizes how the force versus elongation curve depends on the polymer structural parameters: its thickness and granularity (spacing of the monomers). The expression is used to analyze experimental data for the stretching of various different types of biopolymers: polypeptides, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids. Besides recovering elastic parameters (such as the persistence length) that are consistent with those obtained from standard entropic models, the approach allows us to extract viable estimates for the polymers diameter and granularity. This shows that the basic structural polymer features have such a profound impact on the elastic behavior that they can be recovered with the sole input of stretching measurements

Assessment of Students’ Learning and Perceptions of Task Value of a Physical Pharmacy Laboratory Course

Objective: To assess student learning and perceived task value of physical pharmacy wet laboratory sessions conducted at two separate campuses within a school of pharmacy. Methods: Anonymous archival course evaluation and assessment data from 130 students enrolled in a pharmaceutics course were used. The evaluation surveyed students about the task value of five wet laboratory sessions, and assessment data were of pre- and post lab knowledge. Campuses differed in lecture delivery (in-person vs. video-conferencing), but labs were the same. Results: Most students felt that the quality and organization of the lab sessions were good, that the lab sessions allowed them to better understand pharmaceutics concepts, and that the time spent in lab was worthwhile. Most students also indicated that they preferred wet labs over virtual labs or no labs. The proportion of students achieving mastery on knowledge assessments increased significantly from prelab to postlab. No meaningful differences were found between locations. Conclusion: Wet laboratory exercises are a useful supplement for learning physical pharmacy concepts

Tarnished Victory: Finishing Lincoln\u27s War

Understanding the War’s End William Marvel is a Lincoln Prize-winning historian of the Civil War. Wide-ranging research and page-turning prose mark his books. He is a widely-read and respected author, so it would be simple for a reviewer to praise this latest effort and leave it at tha...