During the second part of the 20th Century celebrities became more commonly used for commercial purposes as they could enhance purchase intentions, word-of-mouth- intentions and change attitudes towards brands and products. Over the last few years blogs and bloggers have become more and more used for product placing and the bloggers? power over consumers? behaviour has grown rapidly. The aim of this study is to compare a celebrity?s and a blogger?s impact on consumer behaviour and try to understand the underlying reasons why they do have such power over their audiences.

This report is prepared in cooperation with Södra, Norra Halland SBO. The survey gives the members an opportunity to influence the services and also gives the staff at Södra a hint of the member?s demands.Södra is the largest co-operative forest company in Sweden with over 50 000 members and is divided into 31 areas. Norra Halland SBO is one of them.A questionnaire was sent to the members and 516 (or 53 %) of them answered. Of the respondents 68 % were between 60 and 69 years of age.

Managing credit risk might be the single most important business area for any commercial bank. The assessment of "good" and "bad" corporate clients is a important task for a creditor. A bad debtor is a corporate client with hardships in meeting the continous claims (interest payments) that a creditor requires. One way of evaluating or separating a "bad" client from a "good" client is to assess the propensity for the client to file for bankruptcy. This thesis examines 226 firms in the Swedsh market in the quest of predicting corporate bankruptcy.

Reliable methods to analyze food for the presence of almond are important ? not only for those allergic to almond, but also for monitoring the compliance with labelling regulations (EG directive 2003/89). Until now the Swedish National Food Administration has used methods like rocket immunoelectrophoresis and real-time PCR to detect almond in food. These methods are, however, not sensitive enough for protecting the most sensitive individuals. Therefore, the performance of a commercial ELISA kit was tested with regard to specificity/cross reactivity and limit of detection for almond both in solution and in different matrixes.The limit of quantitation was at least 3,1 ppm (mg/kg) in solution and similar concentrations were measured in bisquits and chocolate.

This Bachelor thesis examines the possibility of replacing an outdated, analog video recording system to a digital counterpart. It is key that the video and audio signals remain synchronized, generator locked and time stamped. It is up to nine different video sources and a number of audio sources to be recorded and treated in such a manner which enables synchronized playback. The  different video sources do not always follow a universal standard, and differ from format as well as resolution. This thesis aims to compare a number of state of the art commercial of the shelf solutions with proprietary hardware.

This thesis examines if commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) systems meet the needs in different types of organizations. This was investigated through a case study of a COTS system. The system is built for contact centers and used in different types of organizations. Contextual inquiries with users from six different organizations were held together with interviews with stakeholders of the system. This gave an understanding for how the system is used and the needs to be met in the different organizations were recognized.

This thesis discusses the global regime complex concerning the management of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and how different regimes concerning these resources cooperate or stand in opposition to each other. Because of changes in US patent law and the establishment of TRIPS, patent claims over plant genetic resources has increased dramatically globally. This, amongst other things, in turn has lead to the development of CBD which in turn lead to the creation of access and benefit laws in many countries. To create a free flow of genetic resources for food and agriculture the ITPGRFA, with its multilateral system, were negotiated. The aim of this thesis is to investigate which consequences the regime complex concerning plant genetic resources for food and agriculture can have on the rights of small farmers, agricultural research and food security in the global South.

This thesis in Art History and Visual Science is about values to graffiti and graffiti artist Banksy. I have studied values relating to Banksy´s graffiti images through which context they are placed in and where they are located. I have selected two different images of Banksy as an example on the basis of a transnational phenomenon, where the images that circulate in the public arena by street art and other images and imported into the galleries and consumption market. My conclusion is that the values of the images are based on the context in which each room have its surroundings and that therefore the impression will increase. The public space context, signal availability and the white cube context indicates art, and the commercial context signals goods and items that can be bought.

This thesis describes how large Swedish companies finance their debt and identifies some factors that affect their decisions. The study is based on 10 well-known companies of which 9 are listed on Nasdaq OMX Nordic. The results show that the companies display several similarities concerning their debt structure and the factors which their choices are based upon. All companies in this study primarily use corporate bonds for their long-term borrowing, commercial papers for the short-term borrowing, and bank-facilities as back-up. There is a tendency that smaller companies in larger extent use bank-loans for long-term borrowing due to larger emissions costs when using market financing.

Certification systems, that assess companies? work with social and environmental issues, have emerged in an increasing number of industries. Today, there are environmental certifications for the food industry, the forestry, the fisheries sector and several more. In apparel industry, certification for sustainable working conditions has been of major impact. The property sector is no exception from other industries.

AbstractThe purpose of project is to study the possibility for Borås Energy & Environment to build and run a commercial ethanol production facility in Borås. The project also studies the technology for the production of ethanol using renewable energy, e.g. lignocelluloses with focus on two processes, svag-syra hydrolyse and enzymatic hydrolyse. The technology of the process is based of hydrolysation of biomass (hemicelluloses and cellulose) to sugar and extract it to ethanol. These two techniques will compare with each other to determine which of them that it?s more suitable for ethanol production.

Abstract We have in this thesis examined two elite hockey clubs in the Swedish Elite League, Brynäs IF and Linköpings HC. Our questions revolve around how they set themselves to bring in an external owner of the club. Our aim was to examine how Linköping and Brynäs stands on the issue of the external owners of the club, which is currently regulated by Riksidrottsförbundets 51/49%-rule which means that the club must control at least 51% of the club while external shareholders can take up to 49 %. Then, we compare the clubs with each other. Interviewees have been clubs club CEO:s and supporters club chairman.

Stands where pre commercial thinning has been ignored or inadequate often tend to have high stem density and low average diameter when they reach heights of thinning. In such stands, it can often be expensive to do a conventional pulpwood harvest as a first thinning. This study investigates the development of the stands and the economic outcome of forest fuel extraction, or a combined harvest as alternatives to the ordinary pulpwood harvest. Simulations in Heureka StandWise were performed for two thin and dense stands, which were constructed by data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory. The simulations show that the extraction of forest fuel in first thinning at an early stage can provide higher net revenue compared to conventional pulpwood harvest at the same time or later.

Decision-making and valuation when buying small caps is a poorly explored area. Likewise, since disputes about deficiencies in the company?s financial and legal standing are, almost without exception, resolved in arbitration with confidentiality requirements for both sides, there is very little empirical knowledge about such disputes. This paper hopes to add empiric experience by describing such a take-over ? the purchase of the Jon Blund companies.

A sample of milk inoculated with S. aureus was treated with penicillin, and Antipen (a new commercial product containing penicillinase) was added. To another sample with S. aureus and penicillin, formic acid to pH 5 was added, and to yet another sample, a combination of formic acid and Antipen was added. Controls with no penicillin were treated in the same way.