Bøker utgitt av Kubitza, Heinz-Werner, Dr., Tectum Verlag

Physical activity appears to be one of the behaviours of patients with anorexia nervosa that may worsen over time and contributes to maintaining the dieting disorder. Seasonal variation in physical activity has been demonstrated. The current thesis therefore addresses three main questions: a) do Australian and German female students perceive seasonal variation in physical activity in a similar manner b) does physical activity vary across the seasons in female patients with anorexia nervosa compared to healthy female controls and c) what assessment and treatment strategies are implemented by clinical specialists? In summary, seasonal variation in physical activity was reported by Australian and German students. Further, it was demonstrated that time spent in some components of physical activity (moderate intensity activities and exercise) varied across the seasons in the patient-group. Comprehensive assessment tools and published exercise programmes were rarely used by the clinical specialists, indicating the need to extend treatment guidelines to include physical activity and its seasonal variation.

Since the establishment of credit risk portfolio models in the financial industry in the 1990s, the focus of interest of both academics and practitioners is directed more and more towards active credit portfolio management. Active portfolio management related to Markowitz' (1952) seminal work is, however, primarily directed at finding optimal portfolios for single periods. For traditional hold-to-maturity credit loan portfolios, Markowitz-type portfolio optimization may therefore not be an appropriate methodology, as within a multi-period context an adequate decision criterion to capture time preferences has to be in place. It may, however, be difficult to determine a proper multi-period utility function. Moreover, utility theory faces other shortages, e.g. when it comes to define a common group preference. Therefore, the author suggests referring to growth-oriented portfolio selection (GOPS) in order to circumvent the utility theory framework. Ultimately, this methodology may be regarded as a promising alternative approach for practical purposes. This work offers a broad overview on techniques to measure and manage credit risk, comprising the presentation of the state-of-the-art techniques for single periods. The GOPS model is presented in an illustrative way based on simple examples that allow the reader to get an insight on the specific properties of the model in order to use the GOPS model for a specific credit portfolio problem. Another major advantage of the GOPS model is that it neatly fits into a bank-wide performance measurement concept.

For almost half a century, the Iron Curtain had separated Americans and Russians by barriers of misunderstanding, suspicion and alienation. The accession of Mikhail Gorbachev to power in the mid-1980s signalled the beginning of a revolutionary stage in American-Soviet relations. In the course of the following two decades Americans and Russians would interact to an extent never anticipated and come to call each other partners, or even friends. The word friendship, however, is often used superficially. This book provides a more profound answer to the question of how, from the American perspective, the image of, and the relationship to, Russia have changed since the former adversary "opened its doors" to the West. Ullmann not only reveals how the American public's attitudes toward Russia or the scope of people-to-people contacts have changed, she also analyses to what extent Americans have been able to learn about Russia in the mass media and to what extent they have been interested in studying Russian culture and language.

Consistency and Credibility? identifies in its first part the extent of correlation between actual environmental performance, the use of physical environmental performance indicators and corporate environmental reporting in the paper and electricity industries in Germany and the UK. The results suggest environmental performance is mainly country-related, possibly due to differences in environmental legislation. This implies that any assessment of the relationship between environmental and economic performance of firms needs to be based on actual environmental performance data and cannot take reporting quality or information about the intensity of use of specific tools, such as environmental performance indicators as a proxy variable. The second part of the book therefore analyses the relationship between environmental and economic performance. Based on the results, the book's second part concludes that for firms in environmentally-intensive industries it is difficult to create a positive link between their environmental and economic performance, and that market settings as well as strategy considerations both can have an effect, but situational aspects determine which of these dominates.Consistency and Credibility? provides useful information for practitioners as well as deeper insights for academics about the link of environmental reporting and environmental performance measurement and how this interacts with economic success. It thus reveals valuable strategic insights in how aiming for corporate sustainability can help to create business success and which factors are critical for achieving this.