In recent years, the Swedish railway track system has been neglected in terms of capacity and maintenance. To adapt the existing system to current traffic load there is a great need for extensive improvement and maintenance. Shortcomings are especially occurring on older embankments running over soft subgrades. To select the most suitable method for reinforcement of the embankment, it is important to evaluate different solutions from a life cycle cost perspective. In long-term perspective, it is often shown that a method with low investment cost causes a higher maintenance cost and a shorter technical lifetime.

Titel: RIX-systemet och dess påverkan på finansinstitutens marknadsmaktFörfattare: Tom Douglas och Eric NarfströmHandledare: Evert KöstnerKurs: NEG300, kandidatuppsats Nationalekonomi fördjupningskurs, 15 hp, HT-2013Nyckelord: marknadsmakt, oligopol, räntabilitet, riksbanken, RIX-systemet, konkurrensSyfte: Denna studie syftar till att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellanmedlemskap i RIX-systemet och räntabilitet på eget kapital beträffande företag vilka är aktiva på den svenska finansmarknaden.Metod: I denna studie används både en kvantitativ och kvalitativ metod med insamling av kvantitativ sekundärdata från framförallt Svenska Bankföreningen. Kvalitativ data har främst hämtats från Riksbanken.Teori: Structure-conduct-performance paradigm (SCP) samt Porters femkraftsmodell ligger till grund för den teoretiska referensram som ligger till grund för studien att tillägga till detta används även konventionell konkurrensteori.Slutsats: Studien visar på att det föreligger ett statistiskt signifikant sambandmellan ett deltagande i RIX-systemet och räntabilitet på eget kapital. Title: The RIX-system and its impact on financial institutions market power.Author: Tom Douglas and Eric NarfströmAdvisor: Evert KöstnerCourse: NEG300, Bachelor thesis in Economics, 15 hp, fall 2013Keywords: Market power, oligopoly, return on investment, central bank, the RIX-system, competitionPurpose: This study aims to investigate whether there is a correlation betweena membership within the RIX-system and return on investment regarding companies with in the financial industry of Sweden.Method: In this study, both a quantitative and qualitative approach has been used. Regarding the collection of quantitative data, it has been retrieved mainly from Swedish Bankers' Association. Collection of qualitative data has been collected mainly from The Swedish central bank Riksbanken.Theory: Structure-conduct-performance paradigm (SCP) and Porters five-forces framework underpin the theoretical framework underlying the study.

The purpose of this study is to find out how buyers of forest-and farm land have valued the property's various parts. How buyers has valued the forest, field, pasture, house and the farm buildings on their property. A questionnaire with 22 questions was sent to 68 people how had bought a property in Kronoberg or Blekinge. They had bought the property in 2010 and first half of 2011, and the properties have been provided by LRF-konsult. To each question there were several alternatives and the buyers would choose the alternative that was most similar to his or her opinion. The study is based on 57 responses.

Whist is one of the most played card games of the world. Though there have been many studies made in the field of game theory, whist is still somewhat of an unchartered territory. In this thesis some methods to obtain an optimal strategy for whist are discussed. Whist belongs to a group of games called logical games. For this group there exists algorithms which result in an optimal strategy.

Concrete is a very common construction material. It´s characteristics are strength, durability and formablility. Superplasticizer is a common admixture, which changes the properties of concrete. Today (spring 2007) there are no certian mathematical methods to calculate the required percentage of this admixture needed to give the necessary set slump flow in the overall concrete recipe. Concrete batching companies must therefor experiment with different amount of superplasticizer in order to meet the specified slump and strength. The purpose og this report is to investigate if any mathematical relation can be established between the amount of superplasticizer used and the slump flow achieved. After carrying out some practical experiments using four different superplasticizers a direct relationship can be establish between the percentage of admixture used and the slump/flowability achieved. Unfortunatly at present due to the numerous variables, the calculation of mathematical formula can not be achieved..

Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and fluxes in forest ecosystems are influenced by natural and human disturbances. In the tropical regions the highest impacts on disturbance in forest C cycles are related to human activities such as conversion of natural lands to cropland and pasture areas and to forest plantations. The disturbances in the forest C cycles will release CO2 emissions to the atmosphere triggering global warming. In this study the focus was set in subtropical soils in Brazil, south extreme region of Bahia. The aim of the study was to investigate whether reforestation of Eucalyptus plantations under former pasture areas will help mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration.

Conqueror for Indigo is production treated with an active chemical to maximize the ink adhesion.ArjoWiggins has found that another chemical, the candidate compound, would improve the propertiesof the paper. ArjoWiggins therefore wish to replace the current compound. To strengthenthe patent requirements for ink adhesion needs to be determined. A theory is developed to whychemicals with certain properties maximize the ink adhesion. Experiments are performed but theresults are inaccurate.

There are some key elements which distinguish a general operating system, such as Linux, from a Real Time operating system, such as OSE. The later belongs to the category of soft Real Time systems while Linux is a general operating system, with significantly improved real time properties after version 2.6. These improvements make it interesting to compare the two systems.When comparing two operating systems, there are a number of issues which have to be considered. One way to measure the performance of the systems is by studying the time consumption for the same functionality and hardware.During the study, the items that appeared as the most important for the performance of the systems, were: process primitives, system primitives, interprocess communication, context switches and interrupt latency.This work demonstrates that it is possible and reasonable to do performance testing on two different operating systems. The implemented tests cover a number of basic functionalities, which appeared to be the most crucial ones for the performance of the systems..

För att skapa fler jobbtillfällen och driva på BNP-tillväxten i Sverige krävs det att små och medelstora företag får möjligheten att utvecklas och växa. För att klara det krävs det mer kapital från venture capital-marknaden, som är den viktigaste källan av finansiering för ett nystartat företag. Det har dock varit tuffa år för venture capital-bolagen sedan finanskrisen slog till. Den problemformulering som legat till grund för studien var följande:Hur har finanskrisen och den pågående eurokrisen påverkat venture capital-bolagens investeringsprocess?Studien syftade till att undersöka hur finanskrisen och den pågående skuldkrisen i Europa påverkat de svenska venture capital-bolagen och dess marknad.

Given that the end-customer has become more demanding, the retailer has to deliver products according to the market demands, which have forced manufacturing companies to constantly search for new opportunities to reduce costs and improve efficiency. It is, therefore important to choose suppliers that are able to compete with the market demands.The market demands in the textile industry have lead to shorter product life cycles, which have caused manufacturers to deliver flexibility with high technology to compete successfully on the global market. To achieve the market requirements the underlying factor is to be aware and optimally use and control time. New technology can have a major influence in the production development, if the company choose to take benefit of the advantages, by optimal allocation of the internal resources the productivity and efficiency will increase, to accomplish a competitive advantage. One way to achieve this is by investing in a Unit Production System.In our thesis we have questioned what the main driving forces for an apparel manufacturing company is when it chooses to invest in new technology.

Analysts at Venture Capital firms of today experience troubles when they try to explicate the intrinsic value, which they see in their investments. The traditional valuation models do not account the value of flexibility and analysts have to Through studies at a Venture Capital firm in Sweden, I have analyzed if Real Option analysis could help them to explicate the intrinsic value that they see.With the help from a decision tree, analysts can identify the hidden option values embedded in the investment. I find that real options can be a helpful tool for Venture Capital companiesto clarify the intrinsic values that they see in their investments. Real option analysis is however not a competitor to traditional value methods, it is rather a compliment..

Logosol is a company that produce small-scale wood processing products. To be able to expand the business Logosol have decided to increase exports, their target markets are the US, Russia, Germany and Norway. The expansion has mainly been through subsidiaries situated on the abroad markets. The subsidiaries have done poor results and that has influenced the whole company. CEO Bengt-Olov Byström made a decision to sell out the units to the people who worked in the business.

This study is based on a statistical analysis of fundamental key ratios on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the period 2004-2012. In total 35 financial ratios of 90 companies were tested, ultimately five ratios remained within the 5% significance level. These ratios were ROA, P/B, Total Yield, EV/EBIT and Operating Margin. A custom made investment model was created based on the purpose to achieve a risk-adjusted excess return. The results in general did not show any significant difference in return between the model's portfolio and index.

In this report a study is carried out with the aim to identify added values of EPC projects implemented in schools in order to increase the interest of EPC projects on the market. The report examines how the planned maintenance, supervision, maintenance and corrective maintenance is affected, how insurance premiums and terms are affected, the indoor environment and how the tasks of the operating staff is changing. A literature study of energy savings, energy use in schools, maintenance and insurance as well as how energy efficiency improvements are related to the Swedish environmental objectives has been made. Visits were carried out in Ludvika, interviews were also carried out with operation technicians and local strategists in Ludvika as well as employees of insurance companies.Schools often have neglected maintenance and problems with ventilation and indoor environment. Schools also have a large energy saving potential due to their low utilization, mainly because they are empty parts of the year.

Concrete is one of the world?s most common construction materials and is composed of 70-80 % stone material. Today crushed stone is used as aggregate in concrete in order to replace natural aggregates due to strong environmental reasons. Stone crushing yields flaky material and in this thesis studies are made on the flaky particle shape and how it influence properties of concrete such as workability, rheology and strength. The concrete recipes used in this thesis have fixed values, the only variable is the flakiness of the crushed stone.