Hedge funds? importance within the financial system has during the most recent years increased dramatically. These special funds are unique instruments that differ from traditional mutual funds in a variety of ways, however especially in how they expect returns. Due to the fact that hedge funds are able to hold short positions they possess the possibility to become market neutral investment vehicles.Because of this possibility to sustain positions neutral to market fluctuations, the concept of absolute returns became a unique selling point for hedge fund managers and promises of stable returns unchallenged by market conditions was assured. This research paper aims to examine the theory of absolute returns in hedge funds by examining hedge funds from the Nordic region during the last years of economic turmoil that has occurred by  analyzing the results from their strategies, partially by quantitative measurements as well as qualitative.  The results show that none of hedge fund strategies managed to deliver absolute returns over the chosen period..

The company Sound Precision has developed a new Line Array loudspeaker system (VHA-40). When using this system, their customers need computer aid to get the best possible sound-quality and control of sound levels for the whole audience. The aim of this thesis is to develop a truly useful sound quality simulator for the VHA-40. The system will help the sound engineers to position the loudspeakers for optimal sound by simulating loudspeaker configurations and visualizing the resulting sound quality and quantity. To solve this a human-centered design (HCD) approach is taken to implement a system that is truly useful for the users, meaning that they will use it more and hence deliver better sound for the audience.

Den svenska elmarknaden avreglerades den 1 januari 1996 och handel och produktion med el öppnades upp för konkurrens. Idag fungerar den nordiska elbörsen Nord Pool som den dominerandemarknadsplatsen för all handel med el inom Norden. Varje dag samlas aktörernas bud för utbud och efterfrågan på och systempriset baseras på producenternas marginalkostnader och konsumenternas betalningsvilja. Den internationella marknaden innebär att den gränsöverskridande handeln med el ökar. De nordiska stamnäten är inte dimensionerade för denna omfattande handel vilket ger upphov till flaskhalsar i stamnäten.

The fork lifter chipper truck is a concept which has been developed for harvest and transport of bio fuel. The system consists of one fork lifter chipper truck and 1, 2 or 3 transport lorries, usually two, which serves the fork lifter chipper truck. The system is driven by the fork lifter chipper truck that produces chipped material into a container on the truck. When the container has been filled the truck drives to the landing site where it?s offloaded.

Many research reports mention the fact that a huge number of all system development projects never reach a successful ending; with other words never fulfil formulated goals. By identifying and forming success factors (and in some aspect risk factors) that the project manager in practice can use, this study may be seen as a step in the direction towards minimising the high number of failed system development projects. The purpose of this research report is to investigate how a system development project, where the development process is based on a specific development or process model (in this case the Waterfall model), can and should be driven. I aim to clarify what is demanded of a project leader for the specific development process and give an account for which eventual leadership qualities that can be well suited for given situation in relation to the need for technical competence. Among other things the project manager should inspire confidence, drive, be a decision maker, engage and own some form of basic knowledge in the field of system development.

ABB Surge Arrestors in Ludvika have for a long time had a problem to keep the moisture at a steady state in the production of their ZnO-powder, that is used to produce varistors.Some black-box models of the spray drying process have been designed and evaluated to find a solution for the problem. After evaluating the collected data it has been found that variations in the supply voltage causes control difficulties for the operator. A cascade control system was designed, consisting of three PI control loops designed with lambda tuning. The disturbance in the supply voltagewas used as a feed forward in the control system.At the end of the project the control system was installed, and tests were made to verify the functionality of the regulator. It was shown that most of the variations in the moisture of the powder could be eliminated using small resources, through purchase of a process controller and four power meters.

Since January 1st 2008, companies have the opportunity to become certified by the new common customs system Authorized Economic Operator (AEO). This opportunity is presented so that authorities together with operators are trusted to ensure that it is the correct cargo that gets transported. Attends Healthcare AB (Attends) has decided to implement this certification. To qualify there are a number of criteria that needs to be met. The aim of this thesis is to verify if Attends can meet the required criteria.

Examensarbetet behandlar nödrutschsystemet som Alimak AB utrustar sina hissar med. Detta system har till uppgift att vid strömbortfall säkerställa att individer i hisskorgen kan rutscha till närmsta stannplan eller nödutgång. Målet med examensarbetet är att Ex-säkra detta system. Ex-säkring innebär att bromsen får arbeta i en explosionsbenägen miljö..

Marknaden för mobila system har utvecklats enormt snabbt de senaste åren. Idag är det ett område med en allt större omsättning och det har vuxit fram som en helt ny gren inom Software Engineering. Utvecklare av mobila applikationer står ständigt inför en utmaning när det gäller att välja vilket mobilt system man ska satsa på när man utvecklar applikationer. Valet av system kan vara helt avgörande för om man hittar rätt målgrupp av konsumenter och därmed kan generera tillräckligt med omsättning för att driva lönsam utveckling av applikationer. Det räcker inte att enbart kolla på vilket system som har mest användare eller vilket system som genererar mest omsättning, utan man bör noggrant överväga de förhållande som gäller för just den applikation som ska utvecklas.

To reconstruct a building is a long-term investment for farmers and it is important that people with different qualifications are involved at an early stage for making the system adapted to the animals as well the animal keeper. Therefore, ethologists who can contribute with their expertise are needed to design the system and get it to function well for the animals.A Swedish farmer who planned to rebuild her stall for tied dairy cattle to a loose-housing system for recruitment heifers for milk production asked me as an ethologist to find a system which can be fit to her existing tie-stall barn for 30 dairy cows, considering the animal needs in terms of movement, social interactions and play behaviors, and to theoretically compare the system with other systems with respect to the behaviors mentioned.The theoretical comparison between different systems was made through a scientific literature review.In agreement with the animal keeper I set out to fit a system with feeding cubicles, a system with cubicles and a system with deep straw bedding to the barn. After measurements were taken and preliminary drawings were outlined it was found that only the feeding cubicle system was possible to fit to the barn.The space provided will limit the animals to perform some playing behaviors. To decrease aggressive interactions between animals even thought a limiting area it is possible to provide partitions between resources animals compete around to prevent that more than one animal can get success to the resource at a particular place at one time. To increase the animal movement in the system the water trays were moved to the outer wall instead of kept in contact with the stalls.Although this report provides guidelines for rebuilding, other competences regarding building construction and a pre-test of the suggested building solution according to Swedish legislation are needed before the rebuilding can start.The results are directed mainly to the owner of the barn, but the literature review can be used by other cattle farmers and might bring increased understanding of the possible effects of different building solution on the animals..

Projektet omfattade en jämförelsestudie avseende stomsystem. Studien undersökte ramverk och fackverk/balk/pelar-system och genomfördes självständigt med stöttning av Ramböll AB´s kontor i Falun. Syftet var främst att undersöka vilka skillnader det finns mellan tvåledsramar och fackverk/balk/pelar-system för lätta hallbyggnader och försöka få klarhet i varför fackverk/balk/pelar-system är det dominerande systemet i Sverige eftersom övriga Europa har tagit en annan utveckling och domineras av tvåledsramar. Studien undersöker skillnaderna mellan systemen i en hallbyggnad med förutbestämda mått i stål.Inledningsvis gjordes en litteraturstudie för att få en bredare bakgrund av systemen och en bättre förståelse om förutsättningarna för varje system. Efter litteraturstudien kunde sedan ett typhus och beräkningsunderlag för jämförelsestudien tas fram.

The economic crisis has affected the airline industry as much as it has affected all other industries in the world. The small airlines and maintenance organisations must find new opportunities and options in order to survive the harsh crisis. Priority Aero Maintenance is now an approved maintenance organisation performing maintenance on aircrafts, engines and components. The company sees economic gains in the future by becoming an approved organisation that follows the European Aviation Safety Agency guidelines (EASA) and meets the requirements outlined in the rules of Part-M.In order for the company to become an approved organization, responsible for continuing airworthiness of aircraft, a handbook should be presented to the local authority. This handbook describes the company?s responsibility for the continuing airworthiness in order for the authorities to get an insight into the company and its work.This thesis resulted in a draft of CAME (Continuing Airworthiness Management Exposition) and this draft has been approved by Priority Aero Maintenance.The CAME will in the future be used by the company as a basis for developing a more detailed manual to be presented to and approved by the Swedish Aviation Authority (Transportstyrelsen)..

Scholarly publishing has since the introduction of electronically distributed periodicals seen a time of change, mainly in the STM-business (Science Technology and Medicine). The roles of the three main participants in the publication process; researcher, publisher and library are developing into new directions. Researchers themselves are taking a more active part in the discussion, with the boycott list from the Public Library of Science organization as an illustrating example. Reforms are being launched partly as an economical and efficiency issue, partly as an increasing desire from researchers to maintain the control of scientific end result. This Master s thesis examines how the partly conflicting goals of the participants affect the conditions for scholarly publication in an electronic environment.

The economic climate that has been going on for the last years has more or less affected everyone. This has created a need to get more knowledge about how our banks work and also how peoples own personal financial situation looks like. When our banks over this last period have compensated their employees with even greater deals of money, reactions has gone to the roof. This discussion has made us interested in the subject, which led to the decision to write an essay about remunerations within banks.The purpose of this essay is to investigate if our banks remunerations to their employees have any effect on their profit numbers. Does the size of the compensations vary with changes in the market? Do larger compensations contribute to a greater result?The study will look at Sweden?s four largest banks, Handelsbanken, SEB, Nordea and Swedbank.

The thesis strives to reveal the dynamics between a central and a peripheral shopping area in Kalmar, Sweden. The establishment of larger shopping centers has become a hallmark of postindustrial cities. Cities globally are at risk of creating an urban economic rift between the central and peripheral shopping areas. By establishing major shopping venues around the traditional central business districts, cities hope to create a larger customer hinterland and thereby also increased economic growth. The aim of this thesis is answered by two research questions regarding collaboration and competition between two shopping areas; the central Kvarnholmen and peripheral Hansa City Mall.