The global wood pellet market has seen a rapid growth after the adoption of the Kyoto protocol and the renewable energy incentives created within the European Union. The global consumption of wood pellets reached 13,5 million tonnes in 2010 and several experts estimate the consumption to be between 35-50 million tonnes by 2020. These forescasts raise the questions which regions that can supply this vast amount of wood pellets and what the conditions are for producing it. This study evaluates the conditions for wood pellet production and export from British Columbia, on Canada?s west coast, focusing on existing industry structure, raw material supply and the distribution chain.

This literature study describes the ways in which the spread of rabies can be prevented in India, what guidelines are set and also which methods have proved most effective. Every year rabies causes the death of around 20 000 people in India, which makes the prevalence in the country the highest in the world. The main source for human infection is bite wounds from infected dogs. People and animals can be vaccinated both prophylactic and post-exposure prophylactic (PEP), despite this the disease continues to claim high number of victims. The majority of those dying are young men and children from the poorer part of the population. Knowledge among the Indian population on rabies and its transmission routes, wound care and vaccinations is very limited.

An important task for Region Skåne is to allocate resources to the health care districts. From 1999 to 2002 Region Skåne used needs-based resource allocation as a model for allocating resources. In a needs-based resource allocation individuals with the same socioeconomic and demographic characteristics are assumed to have the same level of need and are therefore allocated the same amount of resources. During the period of needs-based resource allocation a matrix model was used as a method. In the matrix model individuals were divided into cells after each combination of the socioeconomic and demographic variables.

This thesis work is made by Torbjörn Johansson on Karlstad University for Uddeholms AB. The assignment in this thesis work was to investigate tough cutting in three different tool steels: Vanadis 4 Extra, Vancron 40 and Sverker 21. The research was to compare the wear of the tool after cutting in each one of the tool steel alloys. The research was also made to see if the tool cutting in Vancron 40 has a better wear than the tool cutting in Vanadis 4 Extra and also compare the results with Sverker 21. All three of these alloys are a part of Uddeholms AB:s range of products, and is used in applications like forming tools and knife tools. Vancron 40 is a powder steel with a very good combination of mechanical properties like ductility, adhesive strength and hardness.

This study deals with the road freight sector's capital structure and how leases, loans and equity affect the ratios. The study is based on a ten-year period between 2000-2010 in Sweden. Investments in finance is a complex and interesting subject to study, there are many factors that can affect how the company best choose their investments when they have many great business investment the decisions plays a greater role. The aim is to find an optimal capital structure from a financial investment point of view. The purpose will be answered by the following research question: Are there significant differences between leases, loans and equity financed fleet of factors, profitability, tax, turnover, age, and cyclicality. The study will also examine how debt is related to profit margin, DuPont and the tax, all through a regression analysis. Then were plausible economic theories for the study.

Background: Sweden has, since 1983, had a statutory audit for all joint-stock companies. However, according to EG?s fourth corporation directive, member countries can decide on their own if this applies for small joint-stock companies. An investigation was launched in the fall of 2006 to form an opinion on the importance of the audit reporting by law and what an abolishment of this rule would mean for small joint-stock companies. Critics are claiming that the cost of audit for small companies is exceeding the cause in these micro companies.Audit is regulated by Swedish translation (RS) of International Standards on Auditing (ISA) and is to be applied in all companies comprised by the statutory audit.

The purpose of this thesis is to try to understand, with the help of existing theories and empirical findings, the parameters which are of importance in the development of the pricing capability. We have used a qualitative and abductive methodology approach. The empirical findings have been collected via semi-structured interviews which we have conducted via personal and telephone interviews. Seeing pricing as a capability within the company our theoretical framework mainly consists of the resource-based view and an article explaining and given proof how pricing can be seen as a capability. We also describe the most used pricing strategy today within business-to-business companies, the cost plus strategy.

The master thesis, conducted at Metrima AB, concerns the development of a non-intrusivedistribution meter as a basis for individual tap water billing in apartments.The project is conducted in response to the market interest in individual tap water billing inapartments as an answer to environmental concerns regarding water consumption. Due to thehigh installation cost of traditional water meters, a new method of determining waterconsumption, without having to cut water pipes, is proposed.The proposed method distributes the total water consumption for an apartment complex toindividual apartments according to distribution meters, measuring water run-time, in eachapartment. The water run-time is estimated by measuring the water pipe?s outward vibrationsand temperature changes.A test environment was established and a prototype built, using a tilt- and vibration sensor forvibration sensing and a precision temperature sensor to measure temperature changes. As bothsensors work well in the test environment, further testing was done in 3 apartments for aduration of 5 days.

Knowledge in reproduction in the Swedish lynx (Lynx lynx) is important forseveral reasons. Situated on top of the food chain, lynxes may be at risk of beingexposed to environmental toxins that could have adverse effect on reproduction.The population of lynxes is today managed by restricted hunting which demandsknowledge about both the lynxes numbers and their reproduction. In addition,lynxes may function as indicators of climate change for instance if their season ofheat would be earlier or prolonged due to a warmer climate. Today?s knowledgein reproduction in Swedish lynx is mainly based on information gathered fromradio collared animals.

 This paper discusses whether the allocation of Swedish aid is dependent on absolute or relative poverty, and whether there is any difference in this respect between ODA and aid distributed through officially funded NGO?s. Given the Millennium Development Goals, and their overarching goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015, we should expect the aid allocation to be determined by absolute rather than relative poverty. We use OLS to estimate multiple linear regressions. We find that Swedish ODA has an absolute poverty focus, while the Swedish NGO aid rather seems to be concentrated on relative poverty. .

Title: Besparingar inom Barn- och utbildningsnämnden.Seminar date: 29th of May 2009Course: Degree thesis in Business Administration, bachelor thesisAuthors: Amela Smajlovic and Sten SundfeltAdvisor: Leif HolmbergPurpose: Our purpose is to explain the cost-saving process that many municipality organisations face because of the global financial crisis.Limitations: We have limited our study to the municipality of Landskrona and Kristianstad.Method: Our study has a qualitative approach. By using open interviews we have been able to get an open dialog with our respondents.Theory: We have compared with different theories, such as Rombach?s budget-theory and Wildavsky?s role theory.Empirics: The material is based on interviews and conversations with key figures in different levels of the organisations in Landskrona and Kristianstad.Conclusions: The success of a cost-saving process depends on the engagement, awareness and how inclined to changes the persons in the organisations are. Has everybody the willingness to take responsibility fore the organisation and the changes that the surrounding world claims?.

Green public procurement (GPP) can be used as an instrument to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and consideration of environmental aspects within public procurement is becoming more common in Sweden and internationally. Two product groups that have been pointed out as especially important are transports and electricity, where the opportunities for public purchasers to reduce emissions are relatively large. This paper studies GPP which aims at reducing emissions, primarily of carbon dioxide, through environmental requirements within these two product groups. A theoretical analysis of cost-effectiveness, transaction costs and effects on technological development is performed, followed by a closer study of how these aspects appear in practice within GPP. The results indicate that a cost-effective allocation of reductions between the two product groups is most likely to be attained if the main part of emission reduction is achieved through environmental requirements on electricity. The cost for emission reduction within transports is relatively high, especially for heavy transports. For transportation services, more generally focused requirements on emission reductions could probably give greater environmental gains, but the existence of transaction costs steer the environmental requirements towards more technology specific types.

Energy and environmental demands regarding buildings have become an increasinglydiscussed topic, both in Sweden and in Europe as a whole. The general trend indicatesthat greater efforts are being put into the energy efficiency of the built environment.There are already numerous examples of houses with a low energy demand, and thenumber of low energy buildings is constantly growing.At the time being, the maximum level for energy demands for housing in Stockholm is110 kWh/m2year, but as soon as next year the limit will be changed to 90. The Swedishagency Energimyndigheten is currently conducting a project to interpret the EU Directiveon the so-called Nearly zero energy buildings, and the preliminary results indicate thatthe level of requirements for purchased energy will end up with about 55 kWh / m2year,which is in line withtoday?s recommendationsfound in FEBY's Kravspecifikation förPassivhus.Starting with a low-energy house in Henriksdalshamnen in Stockholm, we have analyzedvarious energy-efficiency measures and their influence on power and energy needs. Thefinancial aspects associated with the measures have been studied using a model of lifecycle costs.The measures were initially studied individually to give an idea of how much impact theyeach had.

Most of the saw and pulp industries have stored wood nearby their production, the main reason is to have a continuous wood flow to the production. Wet storage of wood is of great importance to keep the wood quality. Without water sprinkling the risk of drying outand decomposition through biological activity increases significantly and will result in a negative effect on future production and quality. One drawback of wet storage of wood is the leaching of chemical substances into the surrounding recipient. The log yard run-off contains phosphorus, nitrogen, phenols and organic substances. These substances can cause problems for the surrounding environment. The main objective of this project is to gain an understanding of the wet storage used by the Swedish wood industry and estimate the environmental consequences that run-off water will have on the recipient.

Miljonprogram is a Swedish building program from 1964 to 1975. During that time about a million homes were constructed. Now, almost 50 years later, they are in desperate need of renovation. In order to fulfil the Swedish environmental objective to decrease energy consumption 50 per cent until 2050, considerable housing stock built under the Miljonprogram has to be renovated.Focus in this thesis is on the building services and theirs profitability that can decrease energy consumption in households build during the Miljonprogram. Building construction is not considered in this report.