There is an increased pressure for firms to provide the financial market with additional information. Such disclosure is attached with different kinds of costs. In spite of these costs, and in spite of increased mandatory disclosures, firms choose to voluntary disclosure financial information to analysts and others. This indicates that firms also benefit from providing additional information. The subjects of this study is 431 annual reports from firms listed at the Stockholm Stock Exchange for 2002 and 2005 and the objective is to survey factors that can explain variations in firms? voluntary disclosure.

AbstractPurpose/Aim: In my essay I study the use of Internet with information overload as my perspective. I compare two age groups in order to find out whether there is a difference between generations in how they use the Internet and experience the vast amount of information that is found on the net.Material/Method: I gather information from six frequent World Wide Web users to find out whether they are experiencing information overload when using the Internet in their spare time and how they structure and make sense of the vast amount of information that is found on the net. I use semi-structured interviews to gather qualitative, not quantitative, material for my study. I have also used literature and websites on information overload, the Internet, and connected themes in order to get a broader picture of the subject and help me analyse the material.Main results: The main results of my study are that frequent Internet users do not feel that they suffer from the vast amount of information found on the World Wide Web. They rather enjoy it and if they have heard the term information overload they assume that it does not apply to their use of the Internet.

The concerning issue of declining number of hunters in North America is also apparent in Europe and Sweden. When the bulk of research found on human dimensions and hunting participation has almost exclusively been done in the United States, this report seeks to add to the needed knowledge on a national level focusing on the causes of hunter declines related to social factors within Sweden. Using hunter data reaching from commune, county to National level, this report describes the correlation between a number of variables and the hunting participation in Sweden.The typical Swedish hunter lives in an area with low population density, the person usually has higher education, the living situation is stable with no recent moving and there is relatively good access to forest land. Persons with weaker connection to the Swedish culture such as foreign citizens, people with foreign background and people born outside ?the Nordic countries? are less likely to start hunt or participate in hunting.A strong relationship was found between the favorite game, moose (Alces alces), and the amount of hunters participating in the hunting.

In the last decade, member states of the European Union have adopted a range of measures to decrease the dependency on fossil fuels. This has led to an increased use of biomass in heat and power production. In some countries, the lack of forest resource has led to large scale power producers importing their biomass needs. Due to high energy content and homogeneity, wood pellets have become an internationally traded commodity used for large scale power production. The Baltic States have emerged as one of the largest wood pellet exporting regions in Europe.

Manure evaluation has been suggested as a cheap, fast and easy method which can give information about the digestibility of the ration, the function of the rumen, where in the gastrointestinal tract the feed is digested and the health of the cow. An experiment was conducted to study how manure evaluation could be used as a management tool in Swedish Dairy farming. Manure was collected from cows on Kungsängen Research Station and from 9 other farms. The manure samples were analysed for dry matter, ash, starch, pH-value and particle size (wet sieved). Also, the consistency of the manure was determined on a 5-point scale and the colour and smell were noticed. Penn State Forage Particle Separator was used for determining the particle size of the roughage.

The aim of this paper is to analyze and problematize the content in the teaching media Känslan för ord through an integrative perspective. This is done by using two sets of questions based on two of the didactic questions what and how. How is the content of the Swedish subject constructed in Känslan för ord? and How is this content integrated in Känslan för ord? The used material consists of a fairly large amount of literature which provides different approaches, priorities, and methods about the Swedish subject. This literature forms the base for the model used to analyze the course books.The results are based on an analysis of the exercise culture (uppgiftskultur) in the two books and are extensive.

In today?s modern society with high-speed connections covering the globe people are more than ever finding themselves gazing into the cold lights of the computer screen. On the other side a strange and exciting world yet to be explored awaits. Many are those who spend hour after hour running over green hills swimming in vast blue oceans in the lands of Azeroth, the playfield in the MMORPG game World of Warcraft. In media we often read and hear alarming reports on players stuck in this virtual world, ceasing to play a part in the real world.

Abstract This paper discusses protectionism of intellectual property rights in general and the conflict between large pharmaceutical companies? rights to patent and developing countries? rights to cheap generic preparation in particular. The essay focuses above all on HIV/AIDS medicine. The description tries to give an image of the different interests that collide and why they collide. The different actors are above all the pharmaceutical branch, including researchers, inventors and salesmen with their economic interest of revenue, and the population of the development countries and their pressed situation considering the great need of medicine.

AbstractThe real estate sector is today responsible for 40 per cent of the total amount of energy consumption within the members of the EU. All over the world there are collaborations within research and projects to find ways of reducing the amount of energy consumed by the real estate sector. In Sweden, a directive from the European Union has posed demands on authorities as well as on the private sector to reduce the amount of energy consumed by new building constructions. Together with the directive from the EU there are also new requirements and demands from Boverket for the real estate sector.  These requirements mostly concern the energy consumption of kilowatt-hour per square metre and that the consumed energy also should be renewable.  The aim of this study is to explain what kind of value municipalities experience in using certifications and environmental investments for new and existing buildings. Within the chapter theory, essential areas are described such as; environmental certification systems, economical viability, proceeds connected to building green, difficulties with building green, the performance of green buildings when affected by the behaviour of tenants and customer value.  The following chapter describes the methodology with which we have conducted this study.

Since the financial crisis of 2007, the global financial market has been characterized by instability. At the same time the banks? lending rates and its link to the reporänta have been in the spotlight in various debates in the media. The government with Anders Borg leading the charge has criticized the banks for not lowering their lending rates when the reporänta has been lowered. The banks defend themselves by saying that the reporänta does not have a direct link to their lending rates anymore.

Ethanol for automotive purposes is an issue much debated and researchers disagree about the benefits of bioethanol. Converting energy-rich crops into ethanol suitable as motor fuel is a complex process and continuous development and improvements of processes and material used are important steps in the work of developing environmental friendly fuels. Grain is usually preserved by drying which consumes a lot of energy. Alternative storage of high-moisture grain in airtight storage systems reduce the energy required to produce bioethanol and studies have also shown that ethanol yields are increased more than 10% in ethanol fermentations of moist grain compared to dry. Airtight storage is often not perfectly airtight so biocontrol agents are necessary in order to preserve the grain.

In Sweden, the demand for bio energy has increased in recent years due to the current energy and climate debate. In 2008, the energy supply of Sweden was 612 TWh, biofuels accounted for 123 TWh of these. Stumps have been highlighted as a potential fuel in recent years and the Swedish Forest Agency expects a technically and biologically feasible potential of 20.7 TWh annually between 2010 and 2019. The idea of utilize stumps is not new. During the 19th century stumps were used for tar production and during the 70?s and 80?s attempts were made to use stumps in the pulp industry.

This review paper summaries scientific research about horse thermoregulation and the consequences of using a blanket. Horse owners put blankets on their horses to protect them when they are clipped, to protect them from bugs, to keep them clean and so on. This can have consequences for the horse which their owners might be unaware of. I have tried to answer following questions by searching the available scientific literature; ? How can the horse maintain thermoregulation? ? Is there a risk of suffering when horses wear a blanket? ? Is there a risk of suffering when horses do not wear a blanket? ? How can animal inspectors estimate the welfare of horses when they wear or do not wear a blanket? My result shows that horses who wear a blanket have an increased risk of becoming overheated, develop a chafing, have an increased exposure hazard and have a restrained natural behaviour.

The modern beauty market is concentrated with intense competition where cosmetic brands fight to stay on top. A popular method in order to gain sales and increase margins is to influence existing customers to buy more with the use of suggestive selling. The purpose of this paper, was to further examine the different effects of suggestive selling with the use of complementary versus non- complementary goods in the form of customer satisfaction, customer view of the service encounter, as well as success in sales. In addition, the influence of the customer's purchase amount on the tendency to buy an extra product in a suggestive selling situation was examined. The study was conducted through the use of a field experiment with the support of surveys in 'The Body Shop'.

The value of game for hunting from a social economic viewpoint is an interesting topic that is currently being investigated in a Swedish research program. The amount of damages that the game stocks cause to the forestry is, and has been in focus for a longer period of time. Something that I saw as missing was an investigation of how much an active game keeping measure might cost in lost incomes for forestry in terms of reduced acreage for forest production. This question was the foundation for this investigation, which purpose is to give interested persons with decent knowledge of forestry an example of how cost estimation for forestry resembling the example that is studied can look like. The measures that has been taken is a felling of forest in different ages on both sides of a forest dirt road to create increased asset of forage for the game, and at the same time give hunters that have their post along the dirt road a better chance of seeing passing animals early and increasing the possibility to shoot good shots. The area, which is a part of The Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management estate Öster Malma, is also used as an example for guests who wish to learn more about managing ungulates. These guests have now got the opportunity to get information on how big the costs are for the measures that have been taken. The main conclusions of this work is that changed timber prices and foremost a change of interest rate makes big differences on the result of the calculations.