This research aims to investigate the effects that dredging may have on benthic fauna. The dredging took place in the stream Ireån on northern Gotland during the early summer 2010. My area of research was taking place in a scenic area downstream in Ireån close to the Baltic Sea. I chose this area due to the dredging that started just upstream of this area and continued further upstream. Thus it is not the direct impact of the dredging that is the focus for this paper but the side-effect the dredging may have on the area downstream.

In light of the current debate on gender equality and behavioral finance, the study aims to describe whether gender differences in financial stock picking can be explained by the different multiples found within the Value Investing Theory. Furthermore, the study aims to determine which of the four portfolios, value, growth, male or female, that has had the strongest return. The results suggest that there is an association between female and value stocks as well as between male and growth stocks. Out of the four portfolios, the value and female portfolio were on average the best performers with abnormal returns..

Background: Myocardial infarction is the most common individual disease among people in the west world. In Sweden there are over 50 000 women and men who get myocardial infarction every year and about 40 % of them dies. Exercise training is one part of cardiac rehabilitation and since 1980 Sweden use the guidelines from that time. Aim: The aim was to review exercise-training modalities in cardiac rehabilitation after myocardial infarction and the physiologic- and psychological effects. Method: Facts were obtained by searching through the database PubMed for articles published from 1994 and ten years forward.

Every year 67000 tons of food is wasted by Swedish retail stores. The waste implies financial losses for the retailer and it has a huge impact on the global environment. Reducing in-store food waste is thus a win-win situation for both retailers and society. The most effective way to reduce waste is primarily by optimizing the logistics of supply, but customers expect a store with a wide range of products and stuffed shelves. Thus there will always be products about to expire.

Marketers of today are confronted by the fact that it is increasingly difficult to gain the customer's attention, as they first have to break through the ad clutter. In a landscape where the general attitude towards advertising is negative, one way to successfully deliver the message to the customer involves communicating through personal impact. By using stimuli containing identical information with different senders, this thesis seeks to quantitatively explore whether brands can make use of the personal networks of its employees, in their social media marketing strategy. The purpose of the study is to investigate if communication via the employees could enhance traditional communication effects, such as buying intention and electronic WOM intention. Furthermore, the study aims to examine which role the employee should hold when communicating on behalf of the brand, and if the communication effects vary with the degree of product involvement.

I detta arbete undersöks attityder, motivation och tankar kring miljövänligt beteende på arbetsplatsen bland anställda inom skola och omsorg i tre Dalslandskommuner. Två av dessa har infört en arbetsprocess som låter de anställda, tillsammans i arbetslaget, sätta sina egna mål för miljövänliga arbetsrutiner på arbetsplatsen. Inspiration till studien kommer från Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci 2000) och Value-belief-norm Theory (Stern 2000). Data samlades in och analyserades med både kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder. Kvantitativa data från 169 frågeformulär som behandlade motivation och attityder användes främst som bakgrundsdata till fem stycken intervjuer.

This paper quantitatively examines the effects of marketing brands within the same product category and the same brand portfolio jointly. We have chosen to call this type of marketing category advertising. The results of the study show that category advertising leads to increased brand awareness within the category, which is particularly important for brands within less salient subcategories. For strong brands however, category advertising leads to lower purchase intentions, an effect which could potentially be moderated by focusing the advertisement on the complementary nature of the products combined with promotional elements. The study also shows that there is no difference between advertising products jointly and separately when it comes to brand attitude, category attitude, typicality, brand purchase intention for weak brands and category purchase intention.

Background: The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority?s mortgage limitation, of mortgaging up to 85 percent of the market value of the real estate was introduced on the first of October 2010. The aim of the recommendation is to prevent a detrimental development of the market for mortgages while at the same time creating incentives for the consumers to limit the debt level. The mortgage limitation is a recently adopted recommendation and few studies have made a thorough analysis of its effects, hence it is an interesting topic to study.Aim: The aim of this study is to analyze the initial effects of the mortgage limitation for consumers, banks and estate agencies. Furthermore, the study aims to evaluate drivers of consumer debt levels and conclude whether the mortgage limitation will result in lower debt levels for consumers.Completion: The study is based on interviews with respondents from banks and with respondents from estate agencies to enlighten the initial and long term effects of the mortgage limitation.

Previous research in the field of consumer marketing has confirmed the positive effects of divergence on advertising efficiency. Despite the coherent evidence, some industries lag in the adoption of these findings, one of which is the Swedish real estate market. Divergence has not been elaborately investigated within said context and this paper addresses the need of actionable insights for housing advertising. Starting with the proven success of housing firm Fantastic Frank who work with detail photos in contrast to the common wide angle, this paper examines theoretical implications of detail photos' characteristics. Besides being divergent, detail photos are also ambiguous which renders access to effects related to visual perception.

The media arena is becoming more and more crowded by various brands and different commercial messages. At the same time, consumers learn how to screen marketing communication and their cognitive ad filters enable them to avoid message elaboration. Thus, new thinking and new communication executions are required in order to surprise the consumers and break through the clutter. In the present study, we have investigated how the choice of media affects attention, memory and several communication effects that the ad can generate in the short as well as in the long term. The study is conducted on a well-known brand within a low-involvement product category.

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.

Title: The Investment Savings Account ? Standard Taxation ? Right in TimeAuthors: Gustav Mårtensson and Erica Nordström LöfSupervisor: Göran HäggBackground: In order to facilitate and stimulate financial investments among privateinvestors the organization Aktiespararna made a proposal for a standard-taxed account. As aresult of this, the Swedish government decided to implement the Investment Savings Accountin January of 2012. The introduction of the Investment Savings Account implies that there arenow three different types of accounts for financial investments that are differently taxed onthe Swedish Market. Private investors can improve their after-tax results by combining AssetAllocation and Asset Location, according to earlier studies.

5-hydroxytryptamin (5-HT) is biochemically derived from Tryptophan. Kynurenic acid and quinolinic acid are also known metabolites of tryptophan. 5-HT is considered to play a role in depression and today selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are used for treatment of depression. 5-HT may also play a role in pain perception. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a supplement of tryptophan may affect conditions such as depression and/or pain.

The majority of the Swedish population were self-provided within agriculture a hundred years ago. Times do change and today the situation is the other way around - most of us live within city boundaries and only few work with farming and related agricultural businesses. One thing that has not changed though, is the need of supplies from Swedish agriculture.What do we think of those products? Are we even aware of the connection between us and agriculture? The Federation of Swedish Farmers, LRF (Lantbrukarnas riksförbund), started their project to strengthen the link between consumers and producers in 2008.This paper is part of the project and its aim is to investigate consumers' views and values upon the effects and products from Swedish agriculture.Opinions and values have been studied through interviews influenced by phenomenology. The results show that the informants in general had a positive approach and thinking concerning the products and effects from Swedish agriculture.

Syfte:Uppsatsens syfte är att testa den svaga formen av marknadseffektivitet på ett antal aktiemarknader genom teknisk analys i form av system med glidande medelvärden. Teoretisk referensram:Den teoretiska referensramen utgår ifrån den effektiva marknadshypotesen men omfattar även behavioral finance och teknisk analys. Metod:Uppsatsen är av förklarande karaktär med ett positivistiskt synsätt och ett deduktivt angreppssätt. Testen av marknadseffektivitetens svaga form sker genom en kvantitativ undersökning av sekundärdata. I undersökningen genomförs en hypotesprövning där en passiv investeringsstrategi jämförs mot aktiva investeringsstrategier byggda på system med glidande medelvärden. Undersökningen omfattar åren 2002-2009 och sker på tio väletablerade aktieindex, i Norden samt på tillväxtmarknader och på etablerade marknader, vilket ger cirka 17 500 observationer. Empiri:Hypotesprövningen visar att system med glidande medelvärden har kunnat skapa riskjusterad överavkastning samt kunnat förutse framtida kursrörelser på aktiemarknaderna i Danmark, Norge, Sverige och Hong Kong. På aktiemarknaderna i Finland, Brasilien, Indien, Japan, Tyskland och USA har systemen som testats inte kunnat skapa riskjusterad överavkastning och/eller inte kunnat förutse framtida kursrörelser. Analys:Det finns flera faktorer som påverkat resultaten i olika grad vilket gör att endast indikationer om grad av effektivitet på de olika marknaderna ges i slutsatsen. Slutsatser:På aktiemarknaderna i Danmark, Norge, Sverige och Hong Kong ges indikationer om att kraven för svag marknadseffektivitet inte uppnåtts.