1,516 research outputs found
Company Law as an Instrument of Inclusion: Re-regulating Stakeholder Relations in the Context of Takeovers
This paper considers a number of potential justifications for regulatory intervention aimed at overcoming 'contractual failure' in stakeholder relations. Two distinct functions of stakeholding are identified, in terms of 'contract' and 'innovation' respectively. These conceptions are linked to two distinct approaches to the regulation of stakeholder relations, one based on 'rights' and the other on 'cooperation'. The implications of an innovation based approach for reform of the law relating to hostile takeovers in the UK are considered. The paper concludes by suggesting that the effectiveness of regulation will depend on the capacity of legal rules and procedures to promote cooperation within stakeholder relations, in particular by generating markets for information.
On the Effect of Semantically Enriched Context Models on Software Modularization
Many of the existing approaches for program comprehension rely on the
linguistic information found in source code, such as identifier names and
comments. Semantic clustering is one such technique for modularization of the
system that relies on the informal semantics of the program, encoded in the
vocabulary used in the source code. Treating the source code as a collection of
tokens loses the semantic information embedded within the identifiers. We try
to overcome this problem by introducing context models for source code
identifiers to obtain a semantic kernel, which can be used for both deriving
the topics that run through the system as well as their clustering. In the
first model, we abstract an identifier to its type representation and build on
this notion of context to construct contextual vector representation of the
source code. The second notion of context is defined based on the flow of data
between identifiers to represent a module as a dependency graph where the nodes
correspond to identifiers and the edges represent the data dependencies between
pairs of identifiers. We have applied our approach to 10 medium-sized open
source Java projects, and show that by introducing contexts for identifiers,
the quality of the modularization of the software systems is improved. Both of
the context models give results that are superior to the plain vector
representation of documents. In some cases, the authoritativeness of
decompositions is improved by 67%. Furthermore, a more detailed evaluation of
our approach on JEdit, an open source editor, demonstrates that inferred topics
through performing topic analysis on the contextual representations are more
meaningful compared to the plain representation of the documents. The proposed
approach in introducing a context model for source code identifiers paves the
way for building tools that support developers in program comprehension tasks
such as application and domain concept location, software modularization and
topic analysis
Close Reading As A Means For Increasing Self-Perception In Struggling Middle School Readers
The research question addressed in this capstone was: How does explicit instruction in close reading skills impact self-perception as a reader in struggling middle school students? In this project, action research was conducted over a four week period in a seventh grade suburban summer school classroom with eleven students. All of the participants were categorized as struggling readers. At the beginning of the research, students were administered a survey to gather information about their self-perception as a reader. Over the next four weeks, students received explicit instruction in three close reading strategies. During this period, students were also interviewed one on one about their learning and self-perception as a reader. At the end of the study, students completed the same reader self-perception survey. After four weeks of explicit instruction in close reading strategies, all eleven students saw gains in their reader self-perception. In their interviews students expressed that the close reading strategies gave them greater confidence and skill as a reade
Implicit contracts, takeovers and corporate governance: in the shadow of the city code
This paper offers a qualitative, case-study based analysis of hostile takeover bids mounted in the UK in the mid-1990s under the regime of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers. It is shown that during bids, directors of bid targets focus on the concerns of target shareholders to the exclusion of other stakeholder groups. A review of the case studies five years on find that, almost withouth exception, mergers led to large-scale job losses and asset disposals. However, almost none of the bids were considered by financial commentators, at this point, to have generated shareholder value for investors in that merged company. While there is therefore clear evidence that the Takeover Code is effective in protecting the interests of target shareholders, the implications of the Code for efficiency in corporate performance are much less certain.hostile takeovers, stakeholding, implicit contracts, breach of trust
Ecotourism, in Dominica: Studying the Potential for Economic Development, Environmental Protection and Cultural Conservation
Over the last 20 years, the government of the small Caribbean island nation of Dominica has pursued the development of ecotourism on the island. The hope is that this industry will promote dispersed economic development while providing environmental protection and cultural conservation. However, not enough has been done to determine whether or not the industry is achieving the desired results. To this end, this study explores the growth of the tourism industry on Dominica and shows that, while not perfect, ecotourism is providing some definite benefits to the island in this regard
Modelling the physical dynamics of estuaries for management purposes.
Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.South African estuaries are characterised by highly variable inflows owing to the semi-arid nature
of the land mass which they drain. The interaction of this variability with that of the marine
environment (seasonality, high wave events, synoptic effects) gives rise to the distinctive
character of South African estuaries. In general, they are small, micro-tidal, bar-built systems
with strong flood tidal dominance. Approximately half of the 273 systems along the coast
exhibit intermittent closure of the mouth, while a number can become hypersaline during dry
periods. In view of the increasing development pressures on the rivers and estuaries of South
Africa and their strong dependence on freshwater flow for the maintenance of their character and
functioning, and the need for justifiable, scientifically-based decision making regarding the
freshwater requirements of estuaries is evident.
This study was initiated to address this issue by first developing a model to simulate the physical
dynamics of South African estuaries over time scales from months to years, so enabling
prediction of the medium to long term consequences of alterations in the freshwater inflow on
the abiotic components of an estuary. Thereafter, the efficacy of management policies involving
water releases and mouth breachings could be evaluated in terms of their success in maintaining
the character and functioning of an estuary.
A semi-empirical estuarine systems model incorporating seven state variables, namely water
volume, salt content, stratification, circulation, tidal flushing, freshwater flushing and the height
of the sill at the mouth, was formulated and implemented on two case studies. Estuarine physics
concepts were incorporated dynamically in the model in a novel manner. For instance, the bulk
densimetric Froude number and the Estuarine Richardson number are used in the simulation of
the stratification-circulation states, while the Ackers and White sediment transport formula was
modified to yield results which agreed with field observations of the closure and breaching of the
mouth of the Great Brak Estuary. Additionally, tidal exchange through the mouth was modelled
phenomenologically and successfully calibrated against observations for both case studies.
Model results were found to be fairly robust to uncertainties in parameter values. However, most
encouraging of all is that behaviour known to occur in shallow estuaries, such as modulation of
the n11.:.m water level by low frequency forcing and the generation of overtides, was reproduced by the estuarine systems model although it was not specifically included in the model
formulation. The model is thus considered to reliably predict the physical dynamics of South
African estuaries over time scales of months to years.
A number of management policies involving freshwater allocations, water releases and
breachings of the mouth (where appropriate) were tested on the two case studies, namely the
Great Brak Estuary, a small, temporarily open system, and the permanently open Kromme
Estuary. The results indicate an increase in marine dominance as freshwater flow to the estuaries
decreases. The variability in the estuarine environment declines and the systems become more
inert to freshwater flooding and more sensitive to marine forcing. By applying the estuarine
systems modelling approach, the performance of different management policies could be
evaluated in comparison with reference policies. Accordingly, for both case studies, preferred
management policies which utilize the present total annual allocations to the estuaries more
beneficially could be indicated. Further management applications included the use of the
estuarine systems model in a linked system of abiotic and biotic models to facilitate more
comprehensive prediction of the consequences of freshwater abstraction and so more informed
assessment of estuarine freshwater requirements. The estuarine systems model results were
critical in enabling the prediction of the faunal and floral responses in the intermittently closed
Great Brak Estuary as it is presently the only abiotic model capable of simulating the closure and
breaching of the estuary mouth over a number of years. It is anticipated that further
developments will occur in biological prediction in the near future and that this could require
developments or adaptations to the estuarine systems model, particularly when details of the type
of information required for biological prediction becomes known. Additionally, the use of the
estuarine systems model in a strategic management sense is suggested. It could play a role as a
screening tool for regional water resource planning, while the preliminary quantification of the
extent of anthropogenic influence in expediting the movement of estuaries towards the later
successionary stage of a coastal lagoon is a powerful indication of the level of prediction which
could become possible in the future. Thus enhanced management decision making is now
possible on a site specific basis and at a more strategic water resources planning level
The Purchase of the Past: The Elizabethan Past and the uses of History in Eighteenth-Century Britain
âThe Purchase of the Past: The Elizabethan past and the uses of history in eighteenth-century Britainâ examines the place of the late sixteenth-century Elizabethan and Shakespearean pasts in eighteenth-century popular culture and politics. Through an analysis of five moments, three times at which Elizabeth and the men of her era had particular purchase and twice when Shakespeare, as a historical person, was given particular cultural importance, âThe Purchase of the Pastâ argues this period experienced a transformation in understandings of historical time and of historyâs function in the present. These changes stemmed from the accumulation of a rationalized nationalist history, which popularized particular historical narratives, but, in so doing, marginalized alternative perspectives. These interpretations increasingly focused on the individual and on interior personal development, confining the Elizabethan past to an interesting cast of characters, limiting its ability to legitimize contemporary political issues and identities. Individuals participating in public discourses increasingly saw themselves as living in a modern moment whose origins lay in the age of Elizabeth. It was a modernity that celebrated a Protestant, commercial, imperial past, but was consequently deeply troubled about contemporary changes to the means of production and the emergence of new forms of social and political bonds. This understanding of the past meant that those who seriously harkened back to its ideas and priorities appeared to be illogical and out-of-step. This analysis of how one time period understood and used another in popular discourses and entertainments demonstrates how history has been an integral part of the modernizing, imperial, and nationalizing projects
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