In Sweden, large scale planting of Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) started in the beginning of the 1970?s. At first, the aim was production of pulpwood, but later, also production of timber became considered realistic. Today, Sweden has more than 520 000 ha of Lodgepole pine.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Earnings Management (EM) and certain characteristics of management forecasts, among a sample of Swedish listed companies. The forecast characteristics studied are: 1) Forecast venue: How explicitly is the forecast presented? 2) Forecast precision: How detailed is the estimated number? 3) Forecast measure: Which measure(s) are forecasted? We use a sample of 68 annual management forecasts, obtained from year-end reports between the years 2007-2011. EM during the forecasted year (2008-2012) is estimated using the cross-sectional modified-Jones model. The forecast characteristics are then related to the degree of EM during the forecasted period.

Inom trähusbranschen har den ökade kundanpassningen av bostäder gjort att företag fått allt svårare att möta efterfrågan utan att tappa i lönsamhet. Syftet med det här arbetet är att ta reda på hur ett medelstort svenskt trähusföretag, som tillverkar en stor mängd kundanpassade bostäder ska kunna erbjuda en stor mängd kundvariation utan att förlora i effektivitet och lönsamhet. Flera av lösningsförslagen som presenteras handlar om att öka flexibiliteten på produktionslinan för väggar. Om flera olika väggmodeller ska kunna tillverkas på samma linje utan att komplexiteten minskar måste arbetet kunna utföras snabbare, eller bli gjort snabbare. Våra förslag, som bygger på teorier från mass customization handlar om att skapa initiativ till att omfördela arbetskraft och resurser, så att rätt personer finns på rätt plats för rätt typ av vägg.

En sammanfattning av uppsatsen på maximalt 8000 tecken..

During the last decade of the twentieth century both ?manhood? and gender studies seems to have undergone changes. With the field of masculinity and the critical studies of men, added as ?subsections? of broader gender studies, new knowledge has been produced to better grasp the production of gender and power relations of patriarchy. During the same decade as the ?metrosexual? first appeared of the urban stage, acts of homophobia and attitudes towards ?manhood? seems to have changed.

Till följd av globalisering och en växande konkurrens ställs det i dag allt större krav på organisationer. För att möta den hårdnande konkurrensen är det vanligt att företag implementerar olika kvalitetsprogram. Dessa förändringar ses som nödvändiga åtgärder för att kunna bibehålla marknadsandelar och vara konkurrenskraftiga. Genom att införa Lean-verktyg och arbeta med ständiga förbättringar minskar riskerna för att produktionen läggs ned eller flyttas till lågkostnadsländer.Som examensarbete har författarna valt att studera ett av dessa Lean-verktyg som används för ställtidsreducering. Verktyget benämns SMED och står för ?Single Minute Exchange of Die? vilket syftar till att öka maskintillgängligheten genom effektivare verktygsbyte mellan olika produkter.

Käppala wastewater treatment plant situated on the island of Lidingö northeast of Stockholm is running a project during 2004 and 2005 with the purpose to map out the capacity of anaerobic digestion in the digesters that treat primary and excess sludge. The purpose of this thesis work, which is part of that project, was to characterize the present anaerobic digestion process and to investigate its capacity to treat other organic wastes such as restaurant waste and waste from water works. To decide the potential of both methane and biogas production from different substrates batch laboratory tests were carried out. To imitate the anaerobic digestion process at Käppala continuous tests with small scale reactors were carried out. These reactors were later fed with restaurant waste.The batch laboratory tests showed that primary sludge had a potential biogas and methane production of 0,62 and 0,35 Ndm3/g VS respectively after 40 days of digestion.

En sammanfattning av uppsatsen på maximalt 8000 tecken..

This master thesis is performed at Scania Axles and Gearboxes, a production plant located in Södertälje. Within the plant axles, gearboxes as well as central gears are assembled from components to finished products. All production is conducted on production lines, with a pre-determined rate, which is supplied with components by the material handling department. Since the production quantity and the mix of product variants produced on the production line is customer order-based, the number and type of components needed for production as well as appropriate staffing within the material handling department is difficult to predict. Scania is currently using a number of different resource planning tools for each material handling-department within Axles and Gearboxes to visualize the workload within the departments.

The BSC is a widely used management tool that is turning the vision and strategy into operational goals. However, after analyzing the criticism received by the BSC, it seems as if its internal focus, rigidity, static-ism and mechanical mindset limits the company?s ability to create a strategy that takes important external factors into account. As we see it, the BSC?s limitations can create a risk for strategic inertia.

An old and well known problem in sawmilling is to determine which dimensions /products those are most profitable to produce. Existing optimization models maximize the value of the log. In other words, based upon the market prices of the dimensions the models calculate the best way to split the log. Yet there is a great uncertainty if the most well paid dimensions really are the most profitable to produce. The costs of the process from lumber to sawn products are hard to determine and are therefore often left out from the optimization process. In this study the economic contribution of different dimensions/products are analysed.

This essay is about power, democracy, solidarity and equality in preschool. I examine three different situations to determine if I could have acted more sensibly in my interactions with the children. I portray: a ?children?s choice meeting? where children select an activity, a so-called emotional gathering and a dialogue at the lunch table about a popular movie that we plan to watch together afterwards. The purpose of this essay is to examine which norms and values form the basis of my actions, and if so, how these lead me to use my power to shape the children.I have chosen to use hermeneutic and norm-critical perspectives where I investigate and examine my norms and values and how I react and act, both consciously and unconsciously.

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.

The aim of this study is two folded. We wish to investigate if there is a value premium from hedging jet fuel exposure for American and European airlines. We also seek to answer if airlines can affect their probability to default by using Risk Management. During the period 2003 ? 2006 there existed a value premium for airlines that hedged their expected future consumption of jet fuel.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att kartlägga hur Performance Management-system praktiseras inom svenska organisationer. Med utgångspunkt ur de teorier och modeller som återfinns i litteraturen ska sedan resultatet analyseras. Samtliga av de undersökta industrikoncernerna har tagit till sig PM-synsättet och praktiserar det i någon mån. Skälen till detta benämns vara att verktygen i större grad än annars kan få hela företaget att uppnå gemensam fokus på företagens målsättningar. Hur detta senare visar sig i hur företaget faktiskt jobbar finns det, en del att vara ifrågasättande emot.