Ever since it was first introduced in an article in the Journal of Finance 1952, Harry Markowitz? mean - variance model for portfolio selection has become one of the best known models in finance. The model was one of the first in the world to deal with portfolio optimization mathematically and have directly or indirectly inspired the rest of the world to develop new portfolio optimization methods. Although the model is one of the greatest contributions to modern portfolio theory, critics claim that it may have practical difficulties. Partly because the Markowitz model is based on various assumptions which do not necessarily coincide with the reality.

Purpose: During the last years Real Options have been established in many areas of the day-to-day business. Recent literature also tries to address Supply Chain problems with option theory, since an efficient Supply Chain increasingly gains in importance as a significant competitive advantage. This thesis tries to answer the question, if Real Options can mitigate the costs induced by the Bullwhip Effect as one of the major problems in Supply Chains. Methodology: The authors of the thesis used a deductive approach. Based on a theoretical model utilizing Real Option contracts and under the usage of a randomly created dataset the influence of the Bullwhip Effect on the company?s business and financial structure is examined and subsequently analyzed.

This thesis describes possibilities for Metso Paper to lower their costs of spray pipes for their pulp wash press TRPE, with maintained good functionality and quality.Information that can be used by competitors has been censored in this version of the essay.To find solutions, alternative suppliers have been contacted and asked to quote. There has also been a new spray pipe designed. The manufacturing costs of the new design have been calculated.The thesis also contains a concept generation of an alternative product to the spray pipes in installations where a high pressure washer is used.To be able to ask other manufacturers of spray pipes to quote, a demand specification based on the currently used spray pipe was made. This was then sent to two alternative suppliers.An investigation of earlier used spray pipes, and the currently used, shows that the nozzles are a big part of the total costs of the spray pipes. To attempt to reduce the nozzles high cost an concept generation was made to find the best solution for a new design.There was a request that it should be possible to change the internal brushes in the spray pipe without cutting and welding.

Landscape urbanism has for the last decade been a topic for debate among practitioners and theorists involved in forming the contemporary city. The advocates for landscape urbanism mean that traditional dichotomies like city and country are invalid to illustrate the contemporary urban realm. Rather, a new urban morphology has evolved, which calls for new methods and models when approaching the city. Landscape urbanism suggests a revaluation of landscape in order to develop these approaches. This paper sets out to map how this is addressed within landscape urbanism.

The purpose of this essay is to state a fundamental model which can describe the sounds of the city, emphasizing on its rhythm. The essay is based on a theoretical study that deals with essential elements to describe a soundscape. The theories presented are founded on R. Murray Schafer's theses about soundscapes, Bert De Coensels theses about rhythmical sound patterns and Ambjörn Hugardts view on rhythm. The model that is presented stresses the importance of a multidisciplinary perspective when one attempts to understand and describe a soundscape.

When a helicopter is flying, the dynamics vary depending on, for example, speed and position. Hence, a time-invariant linear model cannot describe its properties under all flight conditions. It is therefore desirable to update the linear helicopter model continuously during the flight. In this thesis, two different recursive estimation methods are presented, LMS (Least Mean Square) and adaptation with a Kalman filter. The main purpose of the system estimation is to get a model which can be used for feedback control.

This thesis describes possibilities for Metso Paper to lower their costs of spray pipes for their pulp wash press TRPE, with maintained good functionality and quality.Information that can be used by competitors has been censored in this version of the essay.To find solutions, alternative suppliers have been contacted and asked to quote. There has also been a new spray pipe designed. The manufacturing costs of the new design have been calculated.The thesis also contains a concept generation of an alternative product to the spray pipes in installations where a high pressure washer is used.To be able to ask other manufacturers of spray pipes to quote, a demand specification based on the currently used spray pipe was made. This was then sent to two alternative suppliers.An investigation of earlier used spray pipes, and the currently used, shows that the nozzles are a big part of the total costs of the spray pipes. To attempt to reduce the nozzles high cost an concept generation was made to find the best solution for a new design.There was a request that it should be possible to change the internal brushes in the spray pipe without cutting and welding.

The purpose of this thesis has been to explore in what ways Franz Kafka?s ?The Metamorphosis? can be read as a story of gender. By bringing together Judith Butler?s theory of materialization and Lennard J. Davis?s crip theory I have spoken of Dismodernity as the domain of abject bodies that have been repudiated by (post)modern societies as untintelligible and dysfunctional.

In companies today, it is becoming more and more common for employees to work in a project based environment, as a result many companies have developed their own project models. Companies with a well developed product culture are striving to improve their existing models, and businesses relatively new in the marketplace are aiming to reach a high level of maturity as well as reach high levels of efficiency in the shortest time possible. As the number of mature and efficient companies with well developed project model increase, so does the level of competition in the market. Since a well developed project model often leads to a more efficient and accurate way of carrying out the project, which in turn leads to shorter delivery time towards the client. This is crucial as time is one of the most valuable parameters of competition in today?s business environment.

The  construction  industry  is  a  costly  business  such  in  respect  of  capital  for  most construction defects which then require rework, tear down and rebuild again. This study is  meaningful  awareness  of  tools  that  can  reduce  this  best  through  communication  and information sharing between the parties.  The  construction  industry  is  known  as  temporary  projects  organizations,  where  the construction  project  consists  of  several  actors  who  have  to  communicate  and  share information  between  them  to  avoid  mistakes  later  in  the  build  time.  These  actors  are bounded together thus for the duration of the project, then broken when the project has reached its end. The challenge here is for these actors to apply a tool that can help and simplify communications, information sharing, and perhaps the most important aspect is to  create  a  routine  for  the  association  and  the  shattering  of  these  actors.  To  implement such  behavior  using  a  tool  such  as  BIM  in  the  industry  whose  size  perhaps  is indescribable may be a very hard task.  BIM (Building Information Model) could be seen as the solution to this problem because it  acts  as  a  portal  where  the  actors  involved  must  sign  in  and  communicate,  share information, and eventually create a behavior, a routine for this association and division of  the  actors  following  the  end  of  the  project.  The  technology  could  help  the  involved from  the  beginning  of  the  project,  already  in  the  model  stage,  break  down  and  prevent any construction barriers when the building has been placed in the works.

This thesis will address a problem concerning availability of information systems at an enterprise within the financial sector and its external suppliers, so called trusted third party. The information system resides on the internal network of the enterprise and must be available to both employees of the enterprise and the trusted third party simultaneously. This contradicts the company policy which disallows third parties access to the internal network. The HAVECA-model introduced in this thesis provides a framework of methods, each solving a sub problem identified in the model. The identified methods are hardening, verification, control and assurance, together supplying a method for continuously securing the internal network against a trusted third party.

Digital preservation is a relatively new subject to Swedish archives. Alhough computers have been used for a long time, preservation has been made on paper and stored on shelves. These days a lot of cities in Sweden have investigated how to best secure the digital information for the future through electronic archiving, e-archives. One option is to hand in the information as soon as possible, but to let the producer keep the information ownership yet some time. The idea is to let the producers of the information answer questions and hand out material, since they are more competent on their field.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur inredningsbranschen, genom IKEA som fallföretag, skulle kunna utveckla sin kommunikation för att ta till vara den potential och köpkraft som tros finnas inom rekordgenerationen. Rekordgenerationen är ett segment som har tid och pengar. Inredning är i sin tur produkter, för rekordgenerationen, som konsumeras i syfte att påvisa en identitet som är en del i den moderna och materiella utvecklingen. Vår undersökning visar att IKEA missar ett stort och köpkraftigt segment och en av anledningarna är bristande kommunikation. Genom att använda sig av marknads-kommunikation som vänder sig till rekordgenerationen och matchar deras preferenser kommer företaget att kunna ta tillvara den potential som segmentet besitter..

Syftet med denna uppsats är att identifiera olika utvecklingsmöjligheter som Apoteket AB har på den avreglerade apoteksmarknaden. Genom att analysera attraktiviteten i de olika möjligheterna är ambitionen att ge rekommendationer om framtida verksamhetsinriktningar där bolaget kan uppnå en positiv utveckling. För att identifiera utvecklingsmöjligheterna har djupgående intervjuer med personer inom Apoteket AB genomförts. Den empiriska informationen har analyserats med hjälp av en SWOT-analys samt en Directional Policy Matrix (DPM). Utifrån detta har en bedömning av marknadens attraktivitet samt företagets konkurrensförmåga genomförts för att bestämma respektive utvecklingsmöjlighets attraktivitet.

There are widespread discussions about the use of retouched models in media, ranging from bloggers to legal decision-makers. Research shows that there are negative psychological effects on especially females being exposed to idealized, retouched model images. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of using retouched models in advertising from a marketing perspective, based on attitudes, perceived quality and purchase intentions.Based on theories about attractiveness, halo-effects and social comparison, an experimental study was done, investigating the different responses on above mentioned parameters to advertisements showing either retouched model images or non-retouched model images. Initially it was also tested if the retouched models were seen as more attractive than the non-retouched models. The results showed almost no differences between the reactions to the advertisements with retouched models compared to the advertisements with non-retouched models, when all respondent groups were analyzed together.