The world economy of today is in an extensive financial crisis which has lead to the fact that people seek well placed investments and securing of capital, something that by many people can be found in forest investment. The price of forest estates has increased with 90 % during the last 5 years and marketing polls indicate a positive belief in the future among forest owners. The development of timber prices has not increased to the same extent as the forest property prices which implies that the property price not only reflect the yield value from the forest but also that the lumber value does not have such a meaningful role in the pricing of forest properties as proven earlier. This fact means that forest owners either invest their capital in forest in a speculative point of view or that the purchasers of forest properties invests in non monetary benefits that lacks a direct yield value. The purpose with this degree thesis is to increase the understanding of the pricing of forest properties with focus on the above mentioned fact.

Feedback tools support electricity users within the Swedish residential sector to increase their knowledge of electricity and the electricity market as well as to become more aware of their electricity consumption, which in turn encourages a reduction and an increased flexibility of electricity use. The primary aim of this study is to identify and analyse how existing feedback tools can be improved, to ensure that they contribute efficiently to the achievement of the EU objectives congruent with a more sustainable energy system in 2030, emphasizing: greenhouse gas reduction, increased energy efficiency and an increased share of renewable energy. In order to reach the primary aim of this study, existing feedback tools have been identified and mapped and interviews with feedback tools providers have been conducted. The study is limited to three research areas: the practical functions of feedback tools, available technology and the use of feedback tools.The use of more efficient feedback tools will provide an increased success rate for energy management, which includes both behavioural changes and energy efficiency. According to the results from the interviews conducted for this study, an increased use and user frequency is important to utilise the energy management potential.

This paper aims to explore the phenomenon urban wind energy, its visual effect on built environment and the factors that affect the opinion towards new elements in the city. A place study of the city Gävle serves as a complement to the theoretical part of the paper. The theoretical discussion opens with an account for the technical and economical conditions of urban wind energy. It presents the technical basics, different types of turbines and a discussion occurring wind related techniques in built environment. Today, the knowledge of how the wind moves and acts in the rural landscape is quite good.

Abstract and summaryThe glocal province of competence.The regional building up of knowledge at Växjö University and its choice of home region.The aim of the study is to give views on knowledge and to describe and discuss which home region Växjö University has chosen as its context. Taking my point of departure in the literature and in examples, I illustrate, discuss and examine how three different disciplines at the university have chosen their home regions. The disciplines are history, economics and biology. The study covers the last 33 years.The empirical study, with its focus only on regional matters, is based on four sources. 1.

Today, individual indoor stalls and individual outdoor paddocks are the most common way to house horses in Sweden. The way that we manage, house and feed the horses are not optimal for the species natural basic behavioural needs. However, the awareness of this grows in the context of research and the emergence of alternative housing systems. One of the alternatives to the traditional format in individual boxes is called group housing. Group housing systems allow horses to live in herds and they can choose how they want to distribute the hours of the day between movement, resting and foraging. The purpose of this study is to examine how frequently the young horses in a group housing system use the indoor lying area.

To fit into our society the dogs of today need a good mentality. To investigate their mentalitydifferent behavior tests have been developed. The tests are useful tools in the selection ofbreeding animals as well as for working and companion dogs. To counter the demand for atest that could be suited for all kind of dogs, regardless of their future function, the mentalitytest Beteende- och personlighetsbeskrivning hund (BPH) was developed. BPH consists ofseven subtests that expose dogs to various situations that can be found in everyday life, suchas meeting an unfamiliar person, sudden noises and suddenly appearing objects.The aim of this study was to find out if there are differences in physiological values betweenindividuals, validate the behavior observations during BPH and get aware of how the dogsexperience the situation.

Bakgrund: Åren 86-97 kännetecknas som en period med flera stora reformer och en svensk konjunktur som nådde sin botten med tre år i följd av negativ BNP-tillväxt. Påtagligt var även reaktionen från Stockholmsbörsen som i samband med lågkonjunkturen upplevde en kraftig nedgång. Vad drev då denna avkastningsutveckling, vinsterna eller värderingarna av dessa? Hur såg sambandet ut mellan konjunktur, bolagsvinster, vinstvärderingar och börsutveckling för perioden?Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats, på uppdrag av Melker Schörling AB, är att studera avkastningsutveckling, bolagsvinster och P/E-multiplar över en konjunkturcykel för att analysera till vilken grad multipelexpansion/kontraktion kontra vinsttillväxt drivit avkastningen för olika branscher på Stockholmsbörsen.I ett andra skede utreds huruvida prognoser för P/E-tal och branschvinster på Stockholmsbörsen korrelerat med konjunkturen samt även hur EBITDA- och vinstmarginaler inverkat på aktievärderingar under tidsperioden. Utifrån studiens resultat kommer eventuella lärdomar kopplas till dagens konjunkturella situation.Genomförande: Insamlat datamaterial i form av siffror och nyckeltal utgår från Affärsvärldens tidsskrifter och årsböcker med början 1986 och slut 1997.

Aim?Rekryteringsgruppen? (RG) is an organisation that through co-operating with the National Health service aims at optimizing the ability for physically disabled persons to rehabilitate. RG is a non-profit organisation ?using physical and mental exercise for disabled people, mainly neurologically disabled persons.? One of the goals that RG wants to achieve is ?that the target group will be able to live such an active and independent life as possible?. As no previous studies have been done in order to review the adaptation of RG:s work and its effects on the disabled, the purpose of this paper is to examine spinal cord injured individuals perception of independence concerning situation of life, ability to function and physical activity.MethodData have been collected by using three questionnaires.

This thesis examines history of the subject of mechatronics and innovation. The main reason tostudy mechatronics from a historical point of view is that it has never been done to a greater extent before. An overview is justified because various definitions have been used over the decades, but nowadays the subject has become more established. Focus in this thesis is mainly on development of the subject of mechatronics at Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Innovation is the other aspect of this thesis.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how swedishness is constructed and narrated in two Swedish documentary series that picture the Swedish participation in the international ISAF mission in Afghanistan. The main focus lies on how the Swedish soldier as such is portrayed, on which values, characteristics and qualities that they are said to embody and how these are linked to notions of swedishness, particularly the strong historical narrative, formed during the second half of the twentieth century, that defines Sweden as a peaceful, neutral and humanitarian state, with peaceful, enlightened and democratically minded citizens. Theoretically it draws on the concept of metanarrative to explain how ideas of shared national origin translates in to a broad organizing discourse, that defines, interprets and communicates notions of what it means to be a Swede and what is needed to make claims on swedishness. Another concept, that of national bodyscape, is also used to further define and explain how ideas of nationality are embodied and take the form of specific characteristics and  personal qualities. The meaning-making in these two series makes use of the above mentioned definition of swedishness as defined by humanitarian concerns, democratic ideals and moral superiority to construct an image of the Swedish soldiers as on the one hand soft, humanitarians, who are needed in Afghanistan because of their especially strong sense of justice and moral, and, on the other, as tough soldiers, who are able to participate in every aspect of the war as fighters.

We started out the study with a preconception of culture as something that creates difference between groups of people, which had been verified by our prior research. We also had a sense of culture as a polysemous term. Our assumption is also that there is an opinion within social work practice that Swedish social workers are faced with a cultural barrier when encountering immigrant clients.In this study our aim is to examine constructions of the terms cultural competence and culture. Constructions of the terms ethnicity and ethnic diversity are also observed, although the main reason for this is to show what relation these terms have to the terms cultural competence and culture, and how they may give each other meaning, according to the theory of social construction. In addition to constructions, we also aim to bring out discourses around the terms, upon which we will create a discussion about power and dominance informed by post-colonial theory and critical discourse analysis (CDA).

Powder Metal (PM) gears are machine element components which operate under the same principle as conventional gears, but, due to their intrinsic material characteristic need to be designed slightly different, and its manufacturing process offers advantages previously unobtainable by conventional steel gear manufacturing methods. The use of PM in similar applications, such as synchronous hubs, makes them a suitable candidate for production in such material. The current master thesis work focuses on gear design using PM by utilizing finite element method (FEM) to reduce weight and inertia taking into account root bending strength and tooth deflection.First a topological optimization is used to determine feasible candidates for different web designs which have as objective to reduce volume, similar topologies were shown during different loading conditions; and hence, this topology was chosen as a suitable candidate. A shape optimization of the topological candidate was performed having as state variables root bending strength, independent for compressive and tensile side of the tooth loading; and tooth deflection, which in concept can be correlated to static transmission error (TE).Another aspect in this thesis analysed is the possibility to incorporate non-trochoid root geometry, a trochoid root is always present when machining with a hob, into the gear root and hence reduce the stress concentration here. Due to the use of PM, a non-symmetric optimized root can be achieved and hence be optimizing compression and tension.Results showed significantly lower inertia, for example certain results showed 40% reduced when compared to solid gear, with adverse effects as increase in tooth deformation and increase in maximum principal stress.

Syfte: Va?r studie tar sin utga?ngspunkt i sma?fo?retagens anva?ndande av nyckeltal i sin verksamhet. Enligt oss a?r synen pa? nyckeltal hos sma?fo?retagare ett fenomen som inte studerats och utforskats tillra?ckligt och det a?r anledningen till att vi valt detta omra?de fo?r va?r studie. Syftet med den ha?r studien a?r att beskriva pa? vilket sa?tt sma?fo?retag kan dra nytta av att ra?kna ut och analysera nyckeltal samt vilka nyckeltal som a?r mest la?mpade att anva?nda just fo?r sma?fo?retagare.Metod: Vi har anva?nt oss av den kvalitativa metoden i denna uppsats.

The municipalities of Sweden have a great responsibility when it comes to adapt the physical planning to a more sustainable development. The development of the society depends upon the growth of new communities and other public services, but to build new communities in a long-term sustainable manner you need good methods and guidance. This study presents four sustainability certification scheme intended to improve and adapt the planning, implementation and performance of new communities and infrastructure project to more sustainable methods based on economic, ecological and social sustainability. These systems are the latest versions of environmental classifications and similar rating schemes, but with a broader focus since they also include the social aspect of sustainability.This study aims to investigate what role sustainability certification schemes can play in local planning for sustainable development. The study compares the certification systems criteria to the tools and goals that the Swedish municipalities have been provided with, to lead efforts towards a more sustainable society.

My master?s thesis is a study of acquisition of photographies during 1958-2008. The questions I proceed from is what patterns lies behind the Royal library's acquisition of photography and how the process of acquisition looks like. The theoretical base which I lean on consists partly of a problematization of the process of cultural heritage and partly of organizational theory. The problematization of the process of cultural heritage is my foundation of this essay.