An increasing number of health problems in the population and an uneven distribution of health between different groups in the society, have been identified as a problems and has therefore been put on the political agenda in Sweden. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to estimate and discuss the significance an individual?s behaviour, in a number of areas, has on his/her level of health.The empirical material for this thesis is taken from a nationwide inquiry conducted in 2004,which was called ?Hälsa på lika villkor?? (Health on equal terms?) The material used consists of the answers and records from individuals living in the administrative district of Kronoberg. 9972 individuals were included in the sample and the answering frequency was 63,2%. To map and analyse the material, which was done mainly through crosstabs, chi-square tests and logistic regressions, the statistics software SPSS 11.5 was used.The parameter used to measure the health level is the individual?s own perception of his or her general health.

Foreign invested SMEs have recently become increasingly interested in China. The enterprises are in this report categorized as second wave companies since they follow the footsteps of previous pioneers, of which mostly were larger companies. The ambitions of the SMEs are either to sell products on the ever expanding Chinese market or to utilize the potential of low cost production for global markets. The existing literature is fragmented and solely based on the experience of larger companies. We believe that SMEs are facing new and different challenges, and thus a new generic theoretical frame work is desirable.

Introduction: Although life expectancy had increased in Sweden for many decades and several health problems had diminished over time, there was no change in men's risk behaviour regarding for instance high alcohol and tobacco consumption. Many of the gender differences in health that existed in society explained were due to power structures and beliefs about behaviour based on gender; a social construction that resulted in the relatively high valuation of men with a more masculine behaviour. Aim: This literature review aimed to study and identify the scientific knowledge regarding paternity leave and its impact on men's health. Method: A literature- based study design was used and the material consisted of peer-reviewed articles from which six themes were identified: alcohol, tobacco, stress, isolation, social support and mortality risk. Results: Divided into three parts, the results described the socioeconomic background of the men who took paternity leave, as well as the impact of paternity leave and masculinity as an impact on men's health.

The interest for venture capital within the financial sector in Sweden has, according to earlier studies, been seen as a growing occurrence. Especially for what is known as informal venture capital. In modern times, private investors who engage themselves in small, unlisted companies, providing informal venture capital are to be known as business angels. They close equity gaps on the financial market by contribute financial capital to start-ups and are therefore an important participant on today?s market.

AbstractDate              2009-06-07Level             Master thesis in Information Technology and Business Administration, 15 hp, EIK024Authors        Anna Karlsson, akn05009@student.mdh.se                      Lena-Maria Lindström, llm05002@student.mdh.seTutor            Peter EkmanTitle              IT Governance with an IT investment focusKeywords     IT Governance, IT investments, IT decisions Problem       To control and manage IT and IT functions in the organization has been a big challenge for many businesses for a long time. In order to make the management of IT more efficient IT Governance is needed. If the organization is going to be successful IT Governance is necessary and this type of governance enables a more effective use of IT that supports the business and its operations. The problem questions for this thesis are: How is the company?s IT Governance built up? How are decisions regarding the company?s IT investments taken? How is the connection between the company?s IT investments and the company?s IT Governance?Purpose        The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze how a company?s IT Governance is built up and how the company uses IT Governance to reach the desired results from the IT investments.Method        The thesis is a qualitative study.

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.

Latent heat storage is a way to store thermal energy when a phase change material undergoes a phase change. The advantage of latent heat storage is the capability to store more energy per mass unit than other heat storage methods. The most commonly used phase change in latent heat storage is the transition between solid and liquid. Phase change materials can be divided into organics, inorganics and eutectics.In the Nordic electricity market the price of electricity is set every hour by Nordpool spot, which leads to price fluctuations because of changes in demand. The main goal of this report is to create a latent heat storage system in a single-family home and investigate the possibility to save money by charging the latent heat storage system when the price of electricity is low, and discharge when the price is high.The thermodynamic model consisted of a ?tube-in-tube? heat exchanger with phase change material in the outer tube and water as the heat transfer fluid in the inner tube.

Title: A study about the purchasing process of ITLevel: Master thesis in Information Technology and Business Administration, 15 hp, EIK024Authors: Emelie Johanson and Mikael LindströmTutor: Peter Ekman, Mälardalens HögskolaKeywords: IT-investment, purchase, decisionProblem: In the last decades the amount of IT investments increased and has become an important resource within most organizations. IT gives the ability to compete and could also be a condition for many to be able to compete. In different businesses it could vary in where they put their focus when they choose an IT investment. This thesis examines how the purchase process of IT looks. How does processes differs in a bigger company versus a smaller company? From these two perspectives this study examined these research questions: Who makes the decisions whether or not an IT solution should be purchased? What aspects decide when companies are to choose between different IT solutions? Where in the purchase process do problems usually emerge?Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the purchasing process of IT from a business perspective.

Abstrakt -  As energy prices rise, energy-saving in buildings is becoming increasingly important. By applying different construction and installation technologies, to new buildings the energy consumption can be reduced effectively, compared to similar existing buildings. These technical measures are often an investment in the long term and will reduce energy costs significantly. The purpose of this report is to show how to reduce energy consumption in a small house. It is presented in this report that both building's technical saving arrangements (the sealing of a building) and an installation technical arrangement (changing from the F-system to the FTX-system) would reduce energy consumption in newly built detached houses, if compared with a similar existing house but without these technical measures. The report presents also detailed calculations showing how much energy an existing 2-storey house, built in the year 2007 in Eskilstuna, consumes and how much energy would be saved if these corrective measures were applied to a new building. It is also reported how much money would be saved each year over a 10 year period if the measures were applied. The results show that both solutions are a good investment in the reduction of energy consumption and hence the cost involved. Keywords: energy, heat energy, infiltration, FTX-system, free temperature effectively. .

One way of signalling commands to the horse during riding is through applying tension on the reins to create bit pressure in the horse?s mouth (Terada et al., 2006; Clayton et al., 2011). The skilfulness of the rider in using the hands when applying bit pressure has consequences both for the horse?s performance and welfare (Manfredi et al., 2010). At the trot there are large vertical deviations of the horse?s body which the rider must adjust and adapt to (Terada et al., 2006) and an unsteady hand due to inability to follow the horse?s movement can be a source of discomfort and conflict behaviour in the horse (Heleski et al., 2009).

As a result of increased energy prices more and more energy-efficient homes are coveted. An energy-efficient alternative is passive houses, which is characterized by an extremely well insulated building envelope that recovers the heat without the use of radiators or under floor heating. But a passive house requires a higher investment cost than a conventional building project, since it will require more construction materials, training of construction workers, greater land area, and long construction period. But the lower operating cost expects to pay back the higher cost of investment. We therefore question how profitable a passive house is in relation to houses built according to modern conventional building techniques.The aim of our study is to investigate the viability of passive houses compared to convent­ional houses.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

This study concerns the type of vegetation selected by cattle grazing on semi-natural pastures, and whether the selection depends on the nutrient content of the vegetation or on other factors. The study was carried out in three different semi-natural pastures in the Uppsala area during June, July and August in 2006. The three pastures were first surveyed, mapped out and divided into sub-areas with regard to the type of dominating vegetation. The vegetation types identified were: wet, mesic, dry, wooded, pasture with signs of former cultivation (arable). Within each vegetation type three 1x1 m sampling plots were laid out. The grazing behaviour of the cows was recorded in a behaviour study.

Background: Funds have become a more popular way for investments. After the financial crisis in 2008 there was some sectors that shown a better results than other depending if the sector was affected by the economic situation or not. Therefore can  investments in sector funds be a good way to get a high return, but it also has a high risk.Problem: Has the risk any impact on the return considered funds in sectors that is affected by the economic situation relatively to sectors that isn?t affected by the situation in the economy?Purpose: Determine whether sector funds risk has any impact on the return. Also if there are any differences between sectors depending if they are affected by the economic situation or not.

This Master's thesis in Library and Information Science aims to explore if personal patterns can be detected in web-searching. It is based on a study where the search sessions of nine test persons were video-recorded, transcribed into logs and analysed.A major objective was to find out whether there is a correlation between individual searchers' personal attributes and their web search behaviour. The logs were therefore compared with the test persons' results in a learning style test (Kolb's Learning Style Inventory) and with interview answers about information behaviour and personal background.While several patterns were indeed discovered, none of them turned out to be strictly personal. The nine test persons could be divided into five types of searchers: the purely analytic searcher; the generally analytic searcher; the balanced searcher; the mixed searcher and the browser. All types of searchers were found to have the attribute learning style in common.