The purpose of the thesis has been to explore the use of hedge fund styles when constructing portfolios of hedge funds (i.e. funds of hedge funds). The central question is if the use of hedge fund styles can significantly explain and improve risk adjusted returns (characterized by Sharpe ratios). The study has been done in collaboration with Optimized Portfolio Management AB who desire further knowledge and evaluation of hedge fund styles for their fund of hedge funds.To be able to create successful ex ante portfolios we have explored various prediction models for both risk and return. Our findings indicate that return prediction is problematic using simple models such as regression since the risk exposure of the indices appear to change significantly over time.

Background: Communication allows people to gain understanding of themselves and their surroundings, which is a prerequisite for good health. The nurse may in her communication help patients develop a feeling that they are not alone in their situation. If the patients cannot express themselves and make themselves understood, it can lead the patients to feel left out which emphasizes the suffering at having aphasia. Aim: The aim of this study was to identify the components which affect nurse?s communication with patients with aphasia.

Aim: My aim with this study is to investigate whether the co-workers in the company Arla Foods is satisfied with the communication between the company and the employees. If there are any changes to be made or if it works well as it is now.Method: I have sent out invistigationforms to 85 co-workers within Arla Foods. This forms included questions about Arla Foods internal communication and how the co-workers apprehend this. I have also made 7 interviews over the phone with co-workers on the dairys around Sweden. Including in these 7 interviews have I also talked and posed questions to representatives for the trades-union within Arla Foods.

The aim of the study was to evaluate parents and course directors?experiences of the AKKTIV ComAlong-course (Augmentative and AlternativeCommunication ? Early Intervention). ComAlong targets parents of pre-schoolchildren with extensive communication difficulties and aims to give parentsknowledge about different aspects of communication, communication developmentand AAC. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Individualinterviews and pair-interviews with totally nine persons were performed and 54course questionnaires filled in by parents were evaluated.

Printed newspapers are on the decline, while digital versions are in rapid growth. Consequently the industry must draw up new business models around the digital format - models that can produce revenue streams equivalent to those that the print format used to produce. However, after a decade of 'free' online news, consumers now hesitate to pay. In their struggle for survival, strategic pricing is a central issue for newspapers. This study aims at describing how Swedish newspapers price their digital content, by analyzing their pricing processes and five factors that may influence the choice of paywall and price levels.

Today more effective computer programs are in use, regarding design of geotechnicalconstructions. There is a risk that the theoretical background of the computerprograms, its limitations and the signification of the choice of soil parameter isforgotten when the computer programs become more user-friendly.This Master thesis deals with simulation and analysis regarding three computerprograms, FEM-design, with the addition Raft, Plaxis and BE-slab. Comparisons aremade for settlement and maximum moment in a concrete-plate. FEM-design is a threedimensional FEM-program, foremost created for design engineers. Plaxis is a twodimensional FEM-program, intended for geotechnical engineers while BE-Slab is aBoundary elements program in two dimensions that is mainly used by designengineers.

BIM has been a trend in recent years when it comes to design and construction ofnew buildings. However, there has been less talk about what happens to BIM modelsafter the construction phase.This issue has been raised at the Forsmark construction documentation department.This thesis aims to look at how the information in a BIM model can be transferred tofacility management and GIS systems and thus add value, even after the constructionphase.Questions raises how such an exchange might look like and whether it is reliable.How should a claim be brought to planners for such an exchange to work.This thesis tested some of the most common methods for this kind of exchange ofinformation from BIM models to facility management and GIS. It was formats like IFC,Fi2xml and a database connectivity that was analyzed by a computer simulation of amodel provided by Forsmark. The model consisted of an existing office building atForsmark, modeled in Autodesk Revit.The results indicate that the formats tested require a precise plotting of the models.The loss of information that came to light in the simulation could be attributed tofailure modeling in Revit. Even such things as naming of areas must be consistent.

The Swedish election year of 2010 has just begun and the political actors are mobilizing their communication efforts to win the votes of the public. The political campaigns of 2010 have the potential to be the first where a new channel for political communication has the potential to make a difference ? the social media. This paper aims to describe in what ways a Member of Parliament, Nina Larsson (FP), together with the PR-agency Hello Clarice are using social media to conduct political campaigning on the web. It also aims to study if the professional consultants of Hello Clarice have any influence over Nina Larsson?s political communication.The theoretical framework which is the base for this study are theories of an extended public sphere in the age of mediation.

Near Field Communication (NFC) är en teknik som möjliggjort utvecklingen av vardagliga betalningar med hjälp av mobiltelefonen. I Sverige är betalningar med NFC-tekniken i mobiltelefoner fortfarande i introduktionsfasen. För att denna teknik ska ha möjlighet att fungera som ett komplement till redan befintliga betallösningar, granskas därför möjligheten för NFC-teknik som betallösningsmetod med inriktning på säkerhetsaspekter.Syftet med uppsatsen är att granska säkerhetsaspekter för NFC-teknik som mobil betallösningsmetod samt analysera dessa aspekter för att få djupare kunskap för NFC-teknologins möjligheter. Kunskapen har erhållits genom en litteraturstudie samt kompletterande av en intervju för att få bredd i informationsbehandlingen.Resultatet av studien visar att NFC-teknologin som betallösningsmetod kan påverkas av ett antal säkerhetsaspekter. För att NFC-tekniken skall nå en bredd i marknaden måste flertalet aktörer samarbeta för en standardisering i användandet av tekniken..

The value of a company's employees is considered to be higher and more important for a business success than ever. Losing employees is not only a loss of valuable knowledge, it also implies a significant cost related to the recruitment of new employees. To attract potential personnel, it is important for the companies to understand how to communicate with talents. Choosing a communication medium for a job advertisement is not easy when new options constantly arise. Despite the development of new communication mediums and channels, such as social mediums, the traditional communication medias still remain available.

Today more effective computer programs are in use, regarding design of geotechnicalconstructions. There is a risk that the theoretical background of the computerprograms, its limitations and the signification of the choice of soil parameter isforgotten when the computer programs become more user-friendly.This Master thesis deals with simulation and analysis regarding three computerprograms, FEM-design, with the addition Raft, Plaxis and BE-slab. Comparisons aremade for settlement and maximum moment in a concrete-plate. FEM-design is a threedimensional FEM-program, foremost created for design engineers. Plaxis is a twodimensional FEM-program, intended for geotechnical engineers while BE-Slab is aBoundary elements program in two dimensions that is mainly used by designengineers.

Today more effective computer programs are in use, regarding design of geotechnicalconstructions. There is a risk that the theoretical background of the computerprograms, its limitations and the signification of the choice of soil parameter isforgotten when the computer programs become more user-friendly.This Master thesis deals with simulation and analysis regarding three computerprograms, FEM-design, with the addition Raft, Plaxis and BE-slab. Comparisons aremade for settlement and maximum moment in a concrete-plate. FEM-design is a threedimensional FEM-program, foremost created for design engineers. Plaxis is a twodimensional FEM-program, intended for geotechnical engineers while BE-Slab is aBoundary elements program in two dimensions that is mainly used by designengineers.

Advertisers of today are facing a great challenge in a landscape where it becomes even more difficult to break through the clutter and convince consumers to buy their products. In order to succeed, they need to come up with new ways of communicating with their customers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if micro-blogging could be considered an effective media choice in order to enhance the perception of brand associations and traditional communication effects. The subject is of interest as brands are putting increasingly more resources into this communication channel. However, at the current date the marketing effects of micro-blogging is unexplored in academic research.

An important task for Region Skåne is to allocate resources to the health care districts. From 1999 to 2002 Region Skåne used needs-based resource allocation as a model for allocating resources. In a needs-based resource allocation individuals with the same socioeconomic and demographic characteristics are assumed to have the same level of need and are therefore allocated the same amount of resources. During the period of needs-based resource allocation a matrix model was used as a method. In the matrix model individuals were divided into cells after each combination of the socioeconomic and demographic variables.

After a workshop in Kuopio held in June 2006, Interbull decided to go forward with the development of a system for beef international genetic evaluation and a three year project called Interbeef was launched in June 2007. The participating countries are so far limited to Europe and the only trait evaluated at present is adjusted weaning weight (weight at 200 days). The results from a first international genetic evaluation have been shared with the countries but are not yet official. The evaluation is based on data from purebred Charolais and Limousin. To achieve good estimates of proofs in an international context it is important that methods for data validation and model selection are implemented.