Ever since it was first introduced in an article in the Journal of Finance 1952, Harry Markowitz? mean - variance model for portfolio selection has become one of the best known models in finance. The model was one of the first in the world to deal with portfolio optimization mathematically and have directly or indirectly inspired the rest of the world to develop new portfolio optimization methods. Although the model is one of the greatest contributions to modern portfolio theory, critics claim that it may have practical difficulties. Partly because the Markowitz model is based on various assumptions which do not necessarily coincide with the reality.

The requirements for wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are gradually increasing, partly because of higher incoming loads, which in turn require a more efficient treatment process. In parallel with environmental and economic goals there are also desires to lower energy consumption without compromising the wastewater treatment. Furthermore, there is a demand on WWTP´s to alter eutrophication in aquatic systems through better nitrogen and phosphorus removal. An increasing number of WWTP´s have acquired biological nitrogen and phos-phorus removal. A by-product of this type of biological treatment is the formation of nitrous oxide, which is a potent greenhouse gas.

Syfte: Högfrekvenshandel har på senare år varit ett omdiskuterat och kontroversiellt ämne. Fenomenet har genomgått omfattande granskning och åsikterna kring dess påverkan på marknaden och dess aktörer går isär. Då tidigare forskning främst genomförts på den amerikanska marknaden är syftet med den här studien att bistå med en djupare insikt kring denna typ av handel och dess avtryck på den svenska finansmarknaden.Metod: För att behandla syftet har en kvalitativ studie av högfrekvenshandel med en deduktiv ansats genomförts.Teori: Studien utgår från Rational Choice Theory, Effektiva marknadshypotesen och tidigare forskning inom ämnet. Med hjälp av det teoretiska ramverket har studien analyserat det empiriska underlaget. Relevanta aspekter har identifierats som kan förklara varför studiens respondenter har ett specifikt förhållningssätt gentemot högfrekvenshandel.Empiri: Studien består av en dokumentstudie och fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer med intressenter på den svenska finansmarknaden.

Denna rapport beskriver arbetet med att designa och utveckla en plattform för simulering ochutvärdering av olika tradingsystem.Det viktigaste kravet som sattes upp i examenarbetets förstudie var att åstakomma en flexibel ochutbyggbar grunddesign för att man vid senare tillfälle ska kunna uttöka systemet vartefter behov avmer funktionalitet uppstår i en snabbt föränderlig finansiell värld. Vidare skulle Microsofts allrasenaste teknik användas.Resultatet blev systemet Trader som är en modulbaserad applikation med tydliga riktlinjer för hurmoduler ska laddas, skapas, initieras samt hur de kommunicerar med varandra utan överflödigaberoenden. Vägen dit gick via inlärning av diverse designmönster och designprinciper. Omfattandeanvändning av händelser och kommandon för kommunikation mellan olika moduler samtprogrammerandet mot interface istället för konkreta objekt i alla lägen gav få beroenden och enflexibel och utbyggbar grunddesign.Trader kan koppla upp sig mot börsen för att hämta kursdata. Denna data kan sedan användas för attutvärdera hur olika tradingsystem skulle ha presterat i olika tidsintervall.

The intention of this thesis is, from a basic statistical viewpoint, to capture the relationship between the price of electricity and a sample of factors influencing the price. The thesis also aims at investigating whether knowledge about the relationship is useful when investing on Nord Pool. Tested factors are temperature, import, price of emission rights as well as a number of hydrological factors. The investigated period stretches from year 2000 until week 32 year 2007. The relevance of each factor was also evaluated yearly as well as for shorter periods in order to get a more comprehensive view of the relationship.

The debate on the future of Nuclear power in Sweden has increased with the discussion on global warming. The uncertainty of fossil fuel- and carbonprices the latest years has aroused considerable interest in Nuclear from power companies, industry and politicians. Nuclear power plants have negligible CO2 emissions and are not directly affected by increased price of emission rights and fossil fuels. The future power production needs to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases to become sustainable. The purpose of this study is to examine the value for power producers to have the option to invest in Nuclear power and how a Nuclear power venture would affect future electricity prices. The study uses two methods, a traditional cash flow model and real option analysis, to estimate the value of Nuclear power.

This thesis was carried out to give some background information to a report of SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) for the Swedish National Rail Administration (Banverket). The requested information was to provide basic data for an environmental impact assessment of the construction of the tunnel through Hallandsås. The aim with the thesis work was to discuss and quantify the leaching of nitrate and the emission of nitrous oxide from the soil at the groundwater level established through the tunnel project. The nitrogen related processes that could be affected were described and discussed. The different areas where a decreased groundwater level can cause changes in the nitrogen processes are the wet and moist areas.

This report analyzes disposable packaging and returnable packaging with the methods life cycle analysis and life cycle costs analysis. These two different packaging are analyzed through the company Clas Ohlson?s packaging-flow. To get a picture of how the flow works, a visit at the company and email contact have been done with Clas Ohlson to get relevant informationToday Clas Ohlson has a big flow of articles to the stores without larger variations in the demand, with the exception of autumn, which is when customers start shopping for Christmas. Clas Ohlson?s articles are placed on a pallet and are wrapped into plastic-film for protection and to make sure that nothing will be stolen.

Energy is an important issue in the current world which significantly affects sustainability and development. Energy generation and use are major sources of CO2 emissions which is one of the most important driving factors in global climate changes. The amount of energy used in house hold section can lead to estimation of the amount of CO2 emitted within this section which subsequently would be a ground to better management and maintaining a sustainable society. This study which is a bachelor?s project in sustainable energy, deals with estimation of CO2 emission from different types of residential houses in Sweden. An extensive literature review on energy use in Sweden by different residential sectors has been conducted.

Binära och ternära övergångsmetallnitrider har blivit väldigt populära för verktygsbeläggningsapplikationer. Hög effekt pulsad magnetronsputtering, HIPIMS, är en ny lovande joniserad PVD metod som använts för magnetron sputtering för att deponera stökiometrisk TiN på WC/Co-substrat. Resultatet har jämförts med konventionell DC-magnetronsputtering (DCms) och DCms och HIPIMS kombinerat. Syftet med den här studien är uppnå täta och jämna TiN-filmer. Beläggningssystemet som använts i detta projekt består av en högvakuumkammare utrustad med en standar plan magnetron med en 150 mm Ti-target.

The capacity to extract information from vehicles has the potential to be very beneficial. Performing analysis on information about fuel usage, emission values and other driving properties of a vehicle can lead to great economic and environmental benefits.This report contains descriptions of two prominent systems for retrieving information of this nature from a vehicle, On-Board Diagnostics and FMS-Standard, and of an implementation of FMS-Standard.The conclusion drawn after this investigation is that these systems do indeed offer access to the benefits mentioned earlier, although to varying degrees and with differing prioritisation..

För att minska utsläppen av koldioxid har länderna inom den europeiska unionen enats om att införa ett system för handel med utsläppsrätter. Handelssystemet infördes 2005 och skall i sin första period pågå fram till 2007. Genom att systemet är marknadsbaserat så bestäms priset på utsläppsrätter genom utbud och efterfrågan på marknaden. Företag som inte innehar tillräckligt med utsläppsrätter måste således köpa utsläppsrätter av andra företag som säljer utsläppsrätter på marknaden. I en tidigare studie anses miljökrav likt handel med utsläppsrätter vara av strategisk natur för företag.

GE Healthcare operates in Uppsala (Sweden) and develops systems, equipments and medium to purify medical substances. Discussions with the local authority concerning planed far-reaching changes and upgrades of the biological process techniques for sewage management, aroused the question about revising the terms of permit for the activity. Therefore it seemed necessary to evaluate a newly installed biological process technique, which is the background of this thesis. The evaluated biological treatment process was built in 2003 and consists of a biological reactor filled with moving bed carriers with a high surface area for biological growth. At the time of the project the biological wastewater treatment plant consisted of a flow equalization facility and two following parallel biological processes; a biological reactor with moving bed carriers and a tower trickling filter.The aim of this thesis was to survey the function of the biological reactor with respect to the reduction of organic matter.

Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas (GHG) that contributes to the global warming. One of the largest sources of methane is livestock, preferably ruminants which alone counted for 30% of the total agricultural anthropogenic methane emissions in the year of 2000. The reason to why ruminants are such large contributors of methane are that the gas is produced in the rumen by enteric formation and leaves the animals by belching, exhaling or by the excreta.Diets high in concentrates can result in a lower emission of methane. Also diets with a high content of starch, such as alfalfa-grass, have a methane-decreasing. It is profitable to reduce enteric methane formation since that form of methane is unavoidably lost.

Hammarby Sjöstad is a new district in Stockholm with high environmental standard. Stockholm Water Company evaluates a local wastewater treatment plant with cutting edge technology. The first step is an experimental treatment plant (Sjöstadsverket) with four parallel lines of treatment, each with a capacity to treat wastewater from 150 persons. Within the membrane technology subproject the possibility of using reverse osmosis (usually called RO) to regain nutrients is examined.Reverse osmosis separates the incoming water in a clean permeate and a concentrate that, as the name indicates, is a more concentrated version of the incoming water. Using this method in wastewater treatment, a solution high in nutrients can be obtained without the use of chemical precipitation agent and with no production of sludge.