The foremost objective of business organizations is to generate value for shareholders and to opt for strategies which optimize it. Hence it is of key concern for business leaders to appreciate how operations best are run to maximize value creation. This study explores how financial theory can reveal the link between one particular business strategy and the corresponding effect on shareholder wealth. The question in focus is whether construction companies can enhance their value creation by implementing shift-work to increase the weekly production rate. The thesis particularly targets apartment block projects in Sweden and has the construction company Peab AB as primary object of study.

This thesis explores the narrow spaces between closely built houses in the over 300-year-old wooden town center of Mariestad, Sweden, and their potential as time capsules and sources of knowledge in cultural-historical building investigations. By interpreting well-preserved carpentry work on a facade in one of these spaces, the study aims to provide an example of how these preserved spaces can serve as a source of knowledge and understanding of craftsmanship and the history of the place. The thesis also addresses the municipality of Mariestad's work with cultural heritage, as well as maps out more of these potentially interesting interstitial spaces. Old Swedish wooden towns possess a high degree of uniqueness both nationally and internationally; nevertheless, they are subjected to relatively significant threats of demolitions and substantial changes, often in the form of many smaller restorations or changes over a long period of time. The focus of the case study is a window from the 16th or 17th century and the facade's old, hand planed wooden cladding.

StoraEnso decided in year 2002 to build a pulp mill in the province of Guangxi, southernChina, and also establish eucalyptus plantations to provide it with raw material. By 2010StoraEnso controls about 90 000 of planned 120 000 ha, out of 75 000 ha is already plantedwith Eucalyptus.By using better genetic material, improve the tending, selecting the sites more careful and byusing a proper fertilization regime StoraEnso hopes to increase the mean annual incrementfrom today?s 25 m3/ha, on bark, to 35 m3/ha. This study is one part in this work to increase themean annual increment in the plantation.This master thesis is the forth in a series, that has followed up a fertilization trial that startedin spring 2006 when the trial was laid out and treatments decided. The aim with the trial is toexamine the production potential of Eucalyptus urophylla in Guangxi, southern China.

Background: Mastitis in dairy cattle is a common ailment worldwide. A cause of mastitis can be bacteria such as Escherichia coli. Mastitis is not a deadly ailment and sometimes the dairy cows show no symptoms but if certain virulence genes are present in the bacteria that cause the mastitis, the bacteria can be transmitted to humans and cause severe diseases. The potential presence of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) in particular would be a major concern for human health.Aim: The aim for this study was to analyze the presence of virulence genes known to be present in E.coli strains isolated from dairy cows with mastitis in Sweden.Method: A Qiagen BIO ROBOT EZ1 was used to purify DNA from 90 bacterial cultures. A panel of virulence genes were amplified and biotinylated from the purified DNA by PCR and an E.coli based DNA microarray was used to detect presumed virulence genes in E.coli.Result: There were no samples that had all the genes traditionally used to classify E.coli as EHEC or potential EHEC.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how librarians view marketing of the library using social media and how this can be used in a marketing strategy. The theoretical framework for this thesis is based on the 7 Ps of the marketing mix, SWOT-analysis and SWOT/TOWS Matrix. The theory is based on planned elements that make up a product or service offered the market. We have used our own interpretation of the theories to analyse our material. Our main method has been a web-based questionnaire, the questionnaire was sent to 523 librarians active at ten large public libraries and its related branches.

Konkurrensen på marknaden blir tuffare och tuffare för många företag och för att vara konkurrenskraftig när det gäller kunskap, forskning och utveckling gäller det att man har en bra läromiljö för medarbetarna så att man kan höja deras kompetens och utnyttja deras fulla potential.En av åtgärderna som Organisationen har gjort, var att byta arbetssätt på utvecklingsavdelningarna. Det nya arbetssättet - Scrum - vill de ha utvärderad för att kunna veta om det har gett önskad effekt och om det skulle gå att förbättra processen.Syftet med denna studien var att ta reda på hur medarbetarna har upplevt implementeringen av ett nytt arbetssätt, scrum, och hur detta har påverkat deras förutsättningar att lära.Jag har använt ett miljöpedagogiskt perspektiv och i huvudsak kvalitativ metod. Vissa inslag av kvantitativ empiri finns också för att komplettera.Resultatet av studien visade sig vara tudelat. Dels upplever medarbetarna att implementeringen av scrum har gått bra och att det fungerar tillfredställande. Å andra sidan visar det sig att man inte alltid lever som man lär och att inte hela scrumprocessen används i sin helhet eller som det är tänkt.

This thesis treats the extended Swedish rules regarding deduction limitations on interest. The purpose for this thesis is to investigate whether the interest deduction limitation rules have potential to protect the Swedish tax base. The thesis also assesses whether the options presented how the extended rules could look liked had been better to protect the Swedish tax base. Furthermore thin capitalizations rules have been evaluated if this is a better method to protect the Swedish tax base.In 2009 the Swedish deduction limitations rules on interest came in to force to protect the Swedish tax base. Despite these rules companies was still able to avoid Swedish tax and therefore threatened the Swedish tax base.

The ability to tackle NP-hard problems has been greatly extended by the introduction of Metaheuristics (see Blum & Roli (2003)) for a summary of most Metaheuristics, general problem-independent optimisation algorithms extending the hill-climbing local search approach to escape local minima. One of these algorithms is Iterated Local Search (ILS) (Lourenco et al., 2002; Stützle, 1999a, p. 25ff), a recent easy to implement but powerful algorithm with results comparable or superior to other state-of-the-art methods for many combinatorial optimisation problems, among them the Traveling Salesman (TSP) and Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP). ILS iteratively samples local minima by modifying the current local minimum and restartinga local search porcedure on this modified solution. This thesis will show how ILS can be implemented for MSA.

Målet med examensarbetet har varit att uppnå en ökad integration mellan IT och den operativa turistverksamheten i fält. Detta har gjorts genom att undersöka på vilka sätt realtidsöverförd geografisk data kan underlätta en guides arbete i fält inom natur- och vandringsturism. Arbetet har resulterat i en prototyp utvecklad av oss och testad av ett antal fjällguider. Guiderna har medverkat i en diskussion och slutligen fyllt i enkäter för att komplettera vår undersökning. Examensarbetet visar att den här sortens applikation kan ge större flexibilitet för guider i deras arbete, bidra till ökad säkerhet och ge en större förståelse mot andra aktörer i närområdet.

Cats and dogs are often unattended by their owners both indoors and outdoors, and therefore there is always a risk that they will get hurt. In the past, poisoning cases was considered unusual, but nowadays they are considered more common. As a veterinary nurse, it is important to know the common symptoms of poisoning, especially when working with emergency veterinary care. A very essential part of the profession as a veterinary nurse is to inform pet owners about the potentially dangerous substances and how poisonings can be prevented. The purpose of this report was to find out what is written scientifically about some common poisonings in dogs and cats and to present available statistics that covers the number of animals poisoned by various substances in Sweden. Hopefully this essay can also be used as a handbook for professionals in animal health care and to assist in educating pet owners. The report mainly covers groceries found in many homes, often easy accessible.

AbstractThe background to this essay is previous experience in working in a preschool abroad. The teachers I met there did not relate to the children in the same way that I?m used to in Sweden. In my view, different expectations on the children, made them not make use of the children?s full potential to develop.The starting-point for this essay is the?life world perspective?.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether or not the publiclibraries under review can make use of Frans Melin?s strategicbranding platform to create or strengthen their brands by meansof their programme activities. The study addresses two issues;how are the programme activities relevant to the way librariescan work with their brands, and what potential do these librarieshave to create and/or reinforce their brands through programmeactivities?The empirical material has been obtained through qualitativeinterviews structured around Melin?s platform. This has alsobeen used to discuss and analyse the results.

The business potential of software defined radio (SDR) technology is studied by evaluating whether or not its characteristics correspond to those particular to a disruptive technology. The maturity of the SDR technology concept is illuminated by analyzing the opinions and perspectives of a selection of representatives for different stakeholders in the wireless communications market. Characteristics as, for example, the degree of consensus about the utility of SDR technology and the awareness of features and limitations are studied by application of the theory of technological frames. This theory helps us understand how and when technology evolution takes place. Finally we describe the value network structures of some potentially viable application areas for SDR and suggest some possible business opportunities based on SDR technology.This thesis is carried out as a case study and the research data is obtained from secondary sources, such as literature and Internet publications as well as interviews with people well experienced in the field of wireless communications.

This paper presents a study of the Swedish public service television broadcaster - Sveriges Televisions (SVT) transfer pricing model. The aim of the thesis is to examine the motives for using transfer pricing from a theoretical perspective and if SVT?s transfer pricing model fulfils these motives. We will also examine any potential managerial problems the existing transfer-pricing model might cause and discuss how these could be solved. We have in our study found that the main motive for using transfer pricing within SVT is to allocate internal resources as efficiently as possible.

Rotavirus causes diarrhea in young mammals all over the world, including infant humans. The diarrhea leads to severe dehydration that can be fatal if left untreated. The dehydration can be treated with fluid therapy and the infection heals itself. Despite the relatively easy treatment half a million children under the age of five dies every year due to diarrhea caused by rotavirus. Rotavirus sorts into the family Reoviridae and is a double-stranded RNA virus with a segmented genome.