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This doctoral thesis has its theoretical origin in the notion that the information flow between management teams, financial analysts and investors is especially exposed to information asymmetry when knowledge-intense companies are concerned. Information asymmetry may aggravate agency problems and risk causing an impairment of the efficient allocation of capital on the stock market. Therefore, the
We make in this chapter a first probe into the lexical domain of eating and drinking as it is construed in the Aslian languages, a branch of the Austroasiatic language family spoken by a majority of the Orang Asli of the Malay Peninsula. Fundamental to human experience and representation, the domain of ingestion has received increased linguistic attention in recent years. Setting out from our own
Recent studies have indicated a decline in sperm number in the western world during the past 50 years, sperm concentration changing from 113 to 66 millions per mL. Furthermore, significant geographical differences in male reproductive function have been observed. In Finland, the sperm concentration was found to be substantially higher than in Denmark. In parallel, the incidence of testicular cance
The environmental problems associated with office furniture consumption call for a more efficient use of office furniture that can decrease emissions and,volume of waste. The author discusses the opportunities and barriers for the implementation of a PSS for office furniture. In addition, the paper identifies possibilities to overcome these barriers. The article is based on interviews with Europea
Effects of introducing a carbonyl group into the conjugation system of carotenoids were studied for four naturally occurring carotenoids: peridinin, fucoxanthin, siphonaxanthin and spheroidenone. The conjugated carbonyl group affects energetics and dynamics of all these carotenoids in a similar way, although the magnitude of the changes depends strongly on the carotenoid structure. Firstly, presen
We present an algorithm for the inverse scattering problem associated to a nonlinear equation arising in the study of the unidirectional propagation of waves in shallow water.
The performance of a turbo code can be severely degraded if no trellis termination is employed. This paper investigates the implications of the choice of trellis termination method for turbo codes, and explains the origin of the performance degradation often experienced without trellis termination. An efficient method to derive the distance spectrum of turbo codes for different trellis termination
We analyze how the interaction between two hydrophobic surfaces in water depends on the amount of dissolved gas. At equilibrium there is, for a truly hydrophobic surface with contact angle theta > 90degrees, a long range attractive force. The attraction is due to the formation of a gaseous film between the surfaces. For a completely degassed sample the gas consists of water vapor and the range of
Different adsorption phases of iron phthalocyanine (FePc) on highly oriented pyrolitic graphite (HOPG) have been characterized by scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM). Evaporation of FePc onto the graphite (000 1) surface, kept at room temperature. results in the formation of three-dimensional molecular islands. After annealing to 400 degrees C different two-dimensional features Lire identified. d
Macro- and microphase separation of compatibilizing graft copolymers in melt-mixed polystyrene/polyamide-6 blends was studied by transmission electron microscopy and thermal analysis. Three different graft copolymers with main chains of polystyrene and side chains of poly(ethylene oxide) were used as additives at various concentrations. The polyamide-6 domain sizes decreased with increasing amount
The objective of this study was to investigate whether the appearance of virtual human models influences observers when judging a working posture. A task in which a manikin is manually assembling a car battery was used in the experiment. In total, 16 different Pictures were presented to the subjects. All pictures had the same background, but included a unique posture and manikin appearance combina
This article outlines an experimental and numerical study of the long-term interaction between silica fume and Portland cement in low-temperature-cured ceramics such as concrete subjected to air, water and sealed curing. For this purpose about 2000 kg of eight qualities of concrete were studied at 4 different ages, each over a period of 90 months. Half of the concretes contained 10% silica fume. P
