The castration of piglets is performed routinely all around the world. Most castrations are done without anaesthesia and analgesia, despite the fact that this procedure has been proved to induce acute pain and stress for the piglets. The procedure regarding castration of piglets is currently a hot topic of debate and an important political issue. The underlying issue is the boar taint which are highlighted in the heating of the meat after slaughter, which in turn can lead to reduced meat sales as it can be perceived as unpleasant for many consumers. The purpose of this study is to examine alternative drugs which may be selected in order to replace the practice of castration of piglets without anaesthesia, in light of improved animal welfare.

High technology companies in Sweden spend a huge amount of money on research and product development in proportion to what they get back in earnings from their inventions. Product development has traditionally been regarded as much more important than business development. This thesis aims to point out the critical factors behind successful business development processes for high technology companies. We have chosen to make a case study of Hexagon, a highly successful and innovative company within the measurement technology business. Internal and external actors that are important for business development have been identified and interviewed in order to understand how ideas are developed and executed.

One of Sweden?s sixteen national environmental objectives strives to decrease the impact on the climate. By 2020, green house gas emissions should be 40 % less compared to the levels of 1990 and a minimum of 50 % of the energy consumption should come from renewable energy sources. Because of this there is a great need of increasing the production of renewable energy. This is where biogas comes in as a competitive alternative.

In January 2005 the emission allowance system was introduced within the European Union and the first period ends at the end of 2007. The system was introduced in order to decrease the wastes of carbon dioxide and the system is a part of ratifying the Kyoto ?protocol which first period runs between 2008-2012.The idea of the system is to reduce the wastes of carbon dioxide where it costs less to do so and the expenses for the society therefore are as diminutive as possible. Different theories explain that companies can benefit from environment legislation and can depending on the company?s attitude gain competitive advantages improve its productivity and thereby increase its profitability.With this in mind, the study aims at examining how the introduction of the emission trade system has influenced Swedish smaller companies in the distant heating industry, with focus on the factors attitude, innovation, competition and profitability.

This project aims to investigate whether algae can be used for biodiesel production in Italy. Algaes are a good option since they are fast growing and do not occupy arable land. The aspects that have been considered are growing, harvesting, which algae strain that is most suitable, extraction of oil, the production of biodiesel and where in Italy this could be possible due to climate. Cost? and energy calculations have been made to investigate if biodiesel produced from algae would be profitable. During the production of biodiesel there are several residues obtained. When the oil has been extracted from the algae, biogas is produced from the residual biomass by anaerobic digestion and then the electricity that can be produced is supplied to the production of biodiesel.

Forestry is an important industry in Sweden, with clear-cut as the most commonly used method for harvesting. Here the long-term impact of clear-cut on lake water quality (dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nitrogen, phosphorus and pH) has been investigated, based on 23 lakes sampled during autumn. Data for additional 15 lakes sampled for the Swedish monitoring program were also used. Lakes were classified as 5, 25, 40 and 60 year based on data of the forest age in the catchment, gathered from the Swedish national forest inventory. Clear-cut lakes were classified as 5 years (>20% of the catchment clear-cut during the last 10 years).

Energy consumption is at present a major political issue, and numerous projects that comprise many nations are currently in process to increase energy efficiency and bring down energy dependency. As a member state of the EU, Sweden now faces the challenge of implementing substantial energy-saving measures until the year 2016. One of these measures is the project ?Green Islands? financed by the EU that intend on creating sustainable islands in areas around the Baltic Sea. The Archipelago Foundation leads the project that concerns the Stockholm archipelago, where focus has been placed upon decreasing energy usage in businesses and services on Utö among other islands.

Bakgrund och problemdiskussion: Under årens gång har det inträffat flera företagsskandaler. Det har sett bra ut på ytan men insidan har visat motsatsen. Fasaden kollapsar till följd av bristande kontroll. Intern styrning och kontroll och COSO:s Internal Controll ? Integrated Framework blir allt mer aktuellt för att få ordning och reda.

This report contains a study of replacing nuclear power with biofuel. The nuclear plant, OKG north of Oskarshamn in Sweden has been chosen and an extensive literature study about the nuclear plant has been implemented. The main aspect of this report is the availability of biofuels and whether it would be economically sustainable. Sweden?s most common biofuels are examined with regard to scope of use and potential.

During the autumn of 2007 I carried out an investigation within the bank and finance Sector. The aim of the investigation was to see how informal aspects could be understood in relation to equality within Bank AB? The main question was: Which are the obstacles and opportunities for equality within Bank AB? To answer the main question I asked the following questions to the material: Are there any gender related different within the organization? How are men and women represented within the internal magazine? Which are the conceptions related to sex/gender within the organization? The investigation is based on a survey, the internal magazine was investigated and finally interviews took place. Throughout the investigation I used organization theory in a gender perspective. With the gender organization theory I examined concepts as structures, leadership, symbolism and changes associated with equality.

This report is based on factors that has had affect on drugaddicts in their decission on quitting their abuse. The questions we have built our report on are: What external factors have had an impact on the drugabuser to end his or her drugabuse? What internal factors have had an impact on the drugabuser to end his or her drugabuse? Does the police have an influence on the drugabuser to end his or her drugabuse? The report is based on intervjues with former drugaddicts. We have also studied the theory of symbolic interactionism and litterature written by different authors to obtain a broad picture of drugabuse. Our results in this report show that the people we have intervjued have been influenced by many different factors and people in their enviroment.

This paper investigates whether the traditional accrual based trading strategy first documented by Sloan (1996) can be refined using fundamental analysis. Specifically, this is done by implementing the composite signal F_SCORE introduced by Piotroski (2000) to identify financially strong or weak firms. We find that by applying both investment models simultaneously, in a model we call P_KOMB, the mean market-adjusted return earned by an investor exploiting the accrual anomaly can be increased by 14.8% annually. This is achieved by taking a long position in strong firms (as defined by the composite signal) in the lowest accrual portfolio, while an offsetting short position is taken in weak firms in the highest accrual portfolio, repeated annually between 1997 and 2007. Consistent with prior studies, positive market-adjusted returns can be attained through assessment of accruals as well as key value drivers found in historical financial data.

The hotel sector has reviewed big changes, as higher requirements on independent hotels have been set. In order to be able to compete with big hotel chains, it is no longer sufficient to only use the 4P of marketing mix, it is also required a bigger focus on the personnel. Trained and service aimed employees are service companies' intangible assets and they become more important. Globalisation and internationalisation has however contributed to that the labor market has become more open, and employees easier can compare employment conditions or change job.The aim of this essay is to analyze and to evaluate conditions for the internal marketing at independent hotels, in order to be able to achieve employee loyalty. The essay builds on a comparison between managers' and employees' views about internal marketing.A qualitative hermeneutical study has been used in order to be able to analyze and evaluate conditions for the independent hotels' internal marketing.

Clopidogrel is an antiplatelet substance that prevents blood coagulation in the arteries. It is an inactive pro drug that becomes activated after first-pass metabolism by the liver. The active metabolite of clopidogrel is 2-oxoclopidogrel, which is unstable therefore pharmacokinetic data is obtained by measuring the inactive metabolite clopidogrel acid in plasma. Clopidogrel is taken orally in tablet form. The aim of this project was to develop a LC-MS/MS method for quantification of clopidogrel and its metabolite in plasma. The method has been developed by optimizing the sample preparation.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva och analysera svenska myndigheters internrevision för att kunna dra slutsatser om i vilken ansvarslinje de befinner sig i dagsläget samt att föra en diskussion kring internrevisionens oberoende. I denna uppsats har en kvalitativ studie genomförts. Med hjälp av semi-strukturerade intervjuer på sex olika myndigheter med krav på internrevision har empiri insamlats som tillsammans med teoretisk referensram ligger till grund för analys och slutsatser. Studien visar att svenska myndigheters internrevision befinner sig i den tredje ansvarslinjen. Vissa variationer inom den tredje ansvarslinjen kan urskiljas på grund av dels otydliga riktlinjer för internrevisorerna för att kunna bibehålla ett oberoende i samband med råd och stöd och dels på grund av bristfälliga kunskaper i den andra ansvarslinjen avseende hur ansvaret ska fördelas. .