On Nasdaq OMX Nordic Stockholm there has been a large increase in issues of preferred stocks since the financial crisis 2008. Aiming to explain whether preferred stocks have most of their characteristics relating to debt or equity, we answer four sub questions. Do all preferred stocks share the same features, or do they differ from each other? Our population is similar in characteristics, except for the preferred stock of Swedbank which is convertible and deviates when it comes to participation in dividends - instead of convertible the others are limited and redeemable. Further, the second sub question treats preferred stock in relation to the common stock quantitatively, in market data.

?Death in the pot.? The Fruit and Vegetable Preserving industry in East Scania during the 20th century A Company History. At the end of the twentieth century, only one of the six companies previously active in the Fruit and Vegetable Preserving Industry in East Scania survived as an independent company: Kiviks Musterier AB. Actual production remains at two sites only. The aim of this study is to determine the reasons for this development. The companies included in the investigation are AB Bjäre industrier, Gustaf Bong AB, Kiviks Musterier AB, AB Ruuthsbo konservindustrier, Th.

The scarcity of qualified forest machine operators as well as the increased competition for competent machine operators among others from the mining industry in Norrland, were the reasons to investigate what attracts and what deters active and potential forest machine operators to the occupation. An interview study was conducted among four groups with four persons in each group. The groups were students in year 1 and 3 respectively at a forestry school at upper secondary school level as well as employees of a forest company and employees of contractors. The majority of all respondents were of the opinion that their interests in machines had been important for the choice of occupation. But for the active machine operators both the interest in the forest and their interest for machines have had importance for choosing this occupation.

The current research examined whether motives, traditional mass media consumption and individual differences (social activity and political interest) predicted the use of social media among a group of university students in China. In coherence with Uses and Gratifications assumptions the study found that the factors differentially predicted the extent of media use. Information seeking, social interaction and affinity were the main reasons for using social media. There was a negative correlation between television viewing and use of social media, in addition to a negative correlation between information seeking and use of the media. Results further suggest that social media are used to enhance social capital, since student?s being socially active offline, tend to use the media to a greater extent than those less active..

Every second woman in Sweden suffers in their lifetime of fracture that is related to osteoporosis. Osteoporosis and fractures affect the person´s everyday life. The aim of the study was to describe experiences of feeling well among women with osteoporosis. Six women were interviewed with semi- structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed and the text was analyzed with thematic content analysis.

The findings in this case study are mainly based on material collected during a field trip with a fellow student to Laos in February-March 2005, which was sponsored by Sida through a Minor Field Study scholarship. The original interest was to study a political aid project (Governance and Administrative Reform Project Luang Prabang, GPAR LP) in a country like Laos with very complex preconditions such as one-party polity. In Laos my interest in evaluation of political aid grew mainly because I found out that the two donors in the project, Sida and the UNDP, had reached different conclusions in their respective evaluations of the project.The main interest in this thesis has been to study how donors have evaluated a political aid project. The study shows that Sida and UNDP used, what in the literature usually is referred to as, Conventional evaluation as methodology when they conducted their evaluations of GPAR LP. The study also shows that the main reason for the different points of view that are expressed in the evaluations depend on a lack of dialogue and consensus, regarding for the project crucial concepts, rather than choice of evaluation methodology.

Active Vibration Control of a Laser PatternGenerator in Microlithography.

Pulp- and papermills expend vast amounts of water in order to produce pulp, paper and cardboard. Hence, they alsocreate vast amounts of waste water which has to be cleaned before it can be released into the receiving body of water. Insuch a wastewater treatment plant, tremendous amounts of energy are expended by the aeration in the biologicalcleaning process. This aeration is necessary to supply the microorganisms that shall decompose organic material withoxygen, which they need for their metabolism. The transfer of oxygen from the gas phase to the liquid phase isprimarily inhibited by surface-active substances in the waste water like resin acids or fatty acids.

Today bonuscards are used widely to encourage customers to return for more purchases. Many of those bonuscards are today made of paper which is negative for the environment and since they are not very valuable they are also easy to misplace. The mobile version of these cards most often needs an active download and/or other processes before use and are therefore not so easy to use spontaneous. This project aims to make it easier to handle these bonuscards with today?s smartphones and solve the given problems.

Free2Move AB is developing products for the market within wireless communicationand identification, among those active RFID-tags. The company had an idea aboutproviding one of their active RFID tags with a GPS receiver and transmit positions viaan existing RFID protocol. Desire from the company was also the possibility to logpositions and measure temperature. The finished prototype should also be able to beactivated by movement. The company had proposal about components that were to beused in the project.

AbstractOur world is facing new challenges depending on the climate changes. The UN panel of climate changes has determined that the human race is responsible for the changes, but also that we have the opportunity to reduce the effects. This demands that the information reaches out to the public which means that the school system carries major responsibility to this type of questions. This also means that the teachers have to be observant, and give the questions the attention which is needed. The purpose of this essay is to see if this awareness exists today among active teachers and teacher students and if the perspective differs among them, but also their opinions is in agreement with the course plan in the subject.

All small- and medium-sized family owned enterprises need to sooner or later undergo a change of ownership. When the elder generation is approaching their retirement they have to make a choice; either hand over the business to the younger generation or sell it to an outsider. The succession of the family owned business can create a life long dilemma for the entrepreneur. From the view of taxation there are, according to current legislation, no reasons to plan the succession to the younger generation. If no preparation has been done, the optional law system concerning inheritance will divide the property left.

The main aim of this study is to determine whether the monastery in Ny Varberg has been used as a hospital during its active years. The second aim has been to investigate weather the buried individuals at the monastery at Ny Varberg exclusively are deceased monks. Only individuals from the monastery's active years has been included in this study. A total of 16 inhumated individuals was analysed. Both men, women and children was shown to be present, as well as wide spread of children and adults.

Physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. To prevent and change this the society need to develop good approaches and interventions to promote physical activity. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate which experience existing users have of smartphone training applications. Also to study if this can be a possible resource for health promotion. Six active users applied to participation after they had seen an ad in social media.

A recent development in the field of accounting has been an increasing use of fair values in financial reporting. In 2005, this development was reinforced in Sweden by the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards. The aim of this thesis is to discuss the problems related to the use of fair values, through a case study of the Swedish investment bank Carnegie. In May 2007, Carnegie announced that the result had been overly stated by 630 MSEK, due to the valuation of derivatives within the trading department. The empirical material consists of documents produced in the legal process between Carnegie and the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.