Glulam?s position at the Swedish market for building constructions has been established over the past decades. Factors affecting glulam demand are found both in global and national contexts as well in customer attitudes and knowledge of the material. Arguments for environmentally friendly and sustainable construction processes and energy-efficient designs are nowadays common, which is something that should motivate increased usage of wood as a renewable material. For the glulam industry to increase its sales, improve profitability and thereby gain market share in present competitive climate, reliable market information and updated market intelligence is required.

Our purpose of this paper is to seek an understanding of which service quality factors that affects customers in their decision making progress regarding purchasing financial services such as pension products. We also seek to evaluate the different service quality factors by compare their relative strength against each other. The study aim to investigate if there are any connections between customer behavior variables such as gender, age and income in Comparison to these service quality factors related to pension products.The findings aim to help a small financial institute such as our case company Plain Capital to understand how their customers experience service quality regarding pension products.In order to find empirical results we conducted a qualitative research as well a quantitative research. The qualitative research employed both a focus group interview with pension savers and an interview with our case company Plain Capital. We were able to identify the service quality factors for pension?s products with help from the focus group interview.

A multivariate cross-sectional model is used in this thesis to proxy for expected earnings and to estimate return on equity for 214 companies over the period 2009-2013, using Swedish data. The model, which has never been tested on Swedish data before, is first confirmed to function as a forecasting model for expected return. Furthermore, the model is evaluated through a Comparison with two univariate models based on the assumption that return on equity follows a mean reversion process. Forecast accuracy is calculated as the difference of estimated returns and actual returns. The results show that the univariate models' forecasts are superior to the multivariate model's..

The purpose of this paper is to juxtapose the theories of learning that are reflected in student?s perspectives of the learning log with that of the pedagogical intentions of the curriculum in order to examine the discrepancy between the experienced and the intentional learning objectives. The paper is divided into two sections. The first section is a literature survey on theories related to the learning log and the curriculum. The second part is constituted by three semi-structured group interviews concerning student´s views on the learning log.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze the ideological development of the former communist parties and the contemporary left-wing socialist parties of the Nordic countries. It is aimed at the two decades that have passed since the collaps of the Berlin wall and the parties at hand are; the Norwegian Sosialistisk Venstre, the Danish Socialistisk Folkeparti, the Swedish Vänsterpartiet and the Finnish Vasemmistoliitto. Since the 1960´s these parties have undergone major ideological changes with reference to a widening of their political agenda to an inclusion of democratic ideals as well as the new ideologies of feminism and ecologism. Thus reforming them into modern left-wing socialist parties at different times. The main hypothesis is formulated from the idea that there must be a connection between the startingpoint of reformation and the degree of modernism/traditionalism they show today.

An explorative study on the work motivation of employees at a retirement home. The three main factors are internal motivation, external motivation and control. A Comparison between how important they estimate the different factors to be and how they experience them today reveals which factor is their key motivator and which areas that need improvement. Results indicat that internal and external motivation are slightly more important than control. And the amount of perceived control reflects the amount of creative and initiative behaviour of the individual.

This report describes a synchronous machine model with magnetic saturation in d-axis, neutralconnection and electrical exciter interface for the transient simulator PSCAD/EMTDC. It hasbeen designed and verified in Comparison to the regular machine model in EMTDC.The performance of the model is very good when incorporating a linear as well as a saturatedmagnetising inductance. The dynamic deviation is only thousandths to ten thousandths perunit. By using a cubic interpolation of the saturation curve, the model gives a good representationof the saturation effect. The open source code implementation of the synchronousmachine model gives the possibility to easily adapt the model to specific requirements.The derived model makes it possible to simulate a synchronous machine with its excitationsystems, e.g.

A great number of tourists visits each day the Fox Glacier in New Zealand and are subjected todangers such as jökulhlaups. This phenomena can occur suddenly and in a destructive way when abuilt up of water suddenly bursts and releases large amounts of water. This is well known to happen atthe near by Franz Josef Glacier which has similar settings to Fox Glacier, but sparse previous researchon the subject indicates different results of whether jökulhlaups are present or not by Fox Glacier. Thisthesis therefore aims to study the conditions for jökulhlaups at the glacier. This is done by remotesensing and field observations of the sandur in the Fox Glacier Valley, qualitative interviews andliterature studies with a Comparison with Franz Josef Glacier.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and fluxes in forest ecosystems are influenced by natural and human disturbances. In the tropical regions the highest impacts on disturbance in forest C cycles are related to human activities such as conversion of natural lands to cropland and pasture areas and to forest plantations. The disturbances in the forest C cycles will release CO2 emissions to the atmosphere triggering global warming. In this study the focus was set in subtropical soils in Brazil, south extreme region of Bahia. The aim of the study was to investigate whether reforestation of Eucalyptus plantations under former pasture areas will help mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration.

Today there are commercially available databases with active features, i.e. active mechanisms are available for development of information systems. But the usage of active mechanisms is low in practice. This is due to the insufficient methodological support in analysis and design for developing ECA rule based software. It has been proposed that one of the most suitable ways to tackle this problem is not to develop new methods but to extend existing methodologies.In this thesis an extension of the Object Modeling Technique (OMT) is developed, called OMT-A, which is able to model active rules.

Sleep is essential for all mammals and they all have different sleep patterns. Wild horses normally spend 2-8.5% of a 24-hour period in recumbent position while stabled horses lie down 11-20%. To fulfil the need of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep the horse must lie down with support against the ground for the head. The lying behavior can be affected by external stimuli such as age, food intake, bedding materials and if the horses feel safe or not. This study investigates the lying behavior of horses on different bedding materials; wood shavings and filled rubber mats (HIT SoftBed®).

States have sovereignty in deciding how to tax business profits. If two states wish to tax the same profit that belongs to the same taxpayer, double taxation will arise. The increasing number of multinational companies gives rise to double taxation problems and the states have to co-operate to find out how to avoid such problems. The OECD Model Tax Convention includes an article in how to determine the rights to tax business profits. This article has been a subject of discussion and a committee of the OECD has been working to develop a new article 7.The work in proposing this new article has had as its aim to reassure that the interpretations of this regulation is made in the same way.

The Trappan Model is one of the most implemented treatment programs for children who have experienced domestic violence. This study undertakes a wider evaluation of the model through a pilot study. The approach is both quantitive and qualitative. Theory as well as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire have been used to fulfil the aim. The design is pre-post.

This essay deals with the results and observations made during excavations in an iron age cemetery in Alsike hage, located in Alsike parish. The excavations took place in 2005 and 2006 and the investigated area comprised two adjacent, but secluded burial-constructions; a square stone setting with a secondary grave, and a stone-built terrace with at least one secondary grave. The artifacts suggests that the TPQ of the stone setting, and the construction date of the rest of the graves, is 900-950 A.D. The aim of this study was to comprehend the course of events in the investigated area, and toanalyse the archaeological finds - in Comparison to the well documented an discussed material burial culture in the lake Mälar area ? in order to discuss indicators of gender and social status.Metal artefacts has been preserved as a part of the analysis..

In today?s society, people often find themselves in situations where they need to be identified;for example when we buy alcohol, need to use an ATM or log on to our e-mail account. The most common methods today that are used for these kinds of matters are antiquated, and inthe meantime, criminals all over the world get more sophisticated. Companies invest billions every day in order to protect their interests. Maybe it?s time that we finally give biometrics theattention that it deserves.This essay aims to describe the biometric methods that are available today, find some of the most effective when it comes to physical access and make a Comparison.