With this research we aim to examine foster parents and social workers perceptions about the relationship between foster parents and the foster child?s biological parents and their perceptions about the support to the foster parents in the contact with the child?s biological parents. The research will provide a deeper understanding of the actors? perceptions and explain possible differences in their opinions. This study has a qualitative approach and contains eight semi-structured interviews with foster parents and social workers in a smaller town in the south of Sweden.

In a time when economic crises relieving one another, it is especially interesting to study how companies choose to finance their operations. Since there is a lack of studies that include banks, and their capital structures, with the rest of the finance market, it is uncertain whether the theories of capital structure are applicable. Therefore, this essay aims to study whether there is any correlation between the two variables debt-equity ratio and return on equity (ROE) for Swedish corporations on the finance market.In accordance with the theorems that the professors Modigliani and Miller filed, in 1958 and 1961, which describes a clear link between debts, increase corporate value through the tax shield and indirectly increased yields. Although these theorems are the foundation of the modern research they focus on perfect markets. Therefore, this paper has also chosen to place great emphasis on theories such as Trade-off and Pecking-order.

Detta examensarbete utfördes under våren 2009 och avhandlar bestämning av fixpunkter i ett höjdnät med hjälp av statiska Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) mätningar. Ämnet är högaktuellt med tanke på att många kommuner står inför en övergång till Rikets Höjdsystem 2000 (RH 2000). Det kan vara ett problem vid en sådan övergång om det finns isolerade delar av det lokala höjdnätet som inte är anslutet till huvudnätet. Tidigare har den enda lösningen på ett sådant problem varit att genomföra ett höjdavvägningståg, ett både kostsamt och tidskrävande företag. Syftet med denna studie är att ge svar på hur noggrant det går att göra en höjdbestämning av fixpunkter med statisk GNSS-mätning. Fältarbetet har utförts i Sandvikens kommun där ett antal höjdfixpunkter i RH 2000 nätet använts som referens vid GNSS-mätningar.

Detta examensarbete syftar till att utveckla en grundläggande GPS- applikation med funktionerna från GIS ?programvaran Cadcorp SIS i botten. Dels att utreda val av lämplig hårdvara och dels att utveckla mjukvaran. Dessa funktioner görs åtkomliga i utvecklingsmiljön med hjälp av ActiveX ? komponenten CadCorp SIS.

Today there are many applications of digital terrain models (DTM) and the requirements of low uncertainty increases. Most of the DTM are produced with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), airborne laser scanning (ALS) and total stations. Guidelines for the preparation and verification of DTM are found in Swedish Standards Institute ? Technical Specifications (SIS-TS) 21144:2007 and SIS-TS 21145:2007. These were defined in collaboration between Swedish National Rail Administration, Banverket, and Swedish Road Administration, Vägverket, to satisfy the needs of requirement formulations in the production of DTM planning, design and construction. The purpose of this paper is to produce and control DTM over Åkermans kulle, located west of the University of Gävle, according to SIS TS 21144:2007 using GNSS with network-RTK, TLS and ALS.

The main purpose of this bachelor thesis is to create a product in the form of a database that can be used for cost estimates of equipment within bio refineries. Through interviews and literature searches the key components and their costs were identified. The database was constructed in Microsoft Excel with different tabs for different categories of components; these tabs are further divided into three parts: one part with costs, one part with calculations and an information part. Most of the part with costs contains the expenses found in scientific papers during the literature study, the calculating part converts different capacities according to user preferences and the currency to euro (?) from 2010 and the information part consists of references and information about what is included in the cost.The database is a good tool for making cost estimates for bio refineries.

Denna C-uppsats är skriven vid Avdelningen för Ekonomistyrning, Luleå tekniska universitet. Nätverk som fenomen har slagit igenom på olika plan i samhället och en specifik typ av nätverk är strategiska multilaterala SME- nätverk. Dessa nätverk består av små och medelstora företag som tillsammans försöker nå gemensamma mål för att på så sätt öka sin konkurrenskraft. Företagen i nätverken kan ses göra sociala utbyten när de går samman för att delge varandra kunskap, resurser och tid. Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva hur samverkan kan se ut i strategiska multilaterala SME-nätverk samt utifrån utbytesteorin identifiera ett urval av faktorer som kan förklara graden av samverkan och en förändrad attityd till samverkan i dessa.

Out of totally 1862 hectares of the Swedish fruitacerage, only 142 hectares are cultivated according to the EU-standards for organic farming. Only 73 hectares are connected to the Swedish control organisation KRAV. Therefore only fruit from this acreage can be sold as organic. The aim of the study was to further investigate the organic fruit production regarding cultivation, market and firm strategy. Through interviews with 36 fruitproducers the situation for organic fruit and the companies were examined.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att utreda månadsavgiftens inverkan på bostadsrätters försäljningspris och få en indikation på hur rationellt den studerade marknaden fungerar. Den formella hypotesen är: Leder låg månadsavgift till högt försäljningspris och vice versa? Dessutom undersöks hur månadsavgiften kapitaliseras in i bostadsrätters försäljningspris.Metod: Denna studie baseras på information om bostadsrättsförsäljningar i Gävle under år 2008. En omfattande manuell databehandling har utförts för att kunna genomföra studien. De prispåverkande faktorerna har klassificerats utifrån deras förmodande inverkan på priset.

Trading based on technical analysis has its roots in the U.S. financial industry where it has long been common practice, in Sweden however the trading style has not had the same impact. Based on the results from the preliminary study we believe this is about to change and that the topic therefore requires further studying. Several online stockbrokers today provide information and tools for technical analysis to their clients. As the list of indicators to use for creating strategies is so immense it is interesting for an investor to know what actually could be the basis for a profitable investment strategy.

Purpose: To examine how video-game releases affect the share price, and if video-game reviews have any impact on the share price of gaming corporations. Method: A quantitative deductive research approach is applied with event study methodology used as basis. The investigated companies were the five largest gaming companies listed on the U.S. NASDAQ exchange. A total of 29 video-game launches and 85 reviews where examined.  Theory: The study is based on The Efficient Market Hypothesis, Agent Theory, Public Relations Theory, Nextopia and previous research.Results: The result contains 114 observations in five companies.

Background: Etiquette has become vital in business relationships. In today?s competitive business climate signs indicate that social competence affect whether a business deal is settled or not. This type of competence could be of crucial importance at a first business meeting and it also plays an important role for future business relationships. Business etiquette is therefore, within the world of business, an interesting area to study.Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to clarify what knowledge and understanding companies, listed on the Swedish stock exchange, possess towards business etiquette, their viewpoint on etiquette education and finally to ascertain whether or not those companies perceive business etiquette to be pivotal to success.Methodology: In order to attain our purpose of this essay we found it most suitable to utilize both a quantitative and qualitative research method.

The study examines how social media can be used in a business-to-business context. To understand the communication conditions, factors has been identified that affects the choice of communication channels for different types of information transferred between parts. Furthermore, the study investigates the underlying reasons for why certain communication channels are chosen before others, in different situations. The study results are based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with employees in a small engineering consulting company. The investigation has focused on employee communication and choice of communication tools primarily in relation to the business relationship.

This bachelor?s thesis examines the work with climate adaptation related to cloudbursts andhigh-water flows in three medium-sized municipalities: Lerum, Kungsbacka, and M?lndal.As climate changes progress, the risk of extreme weather events increases. This placesmunicipalities in an increasingly important position in planning and developing communitiescapable of managing a changing climate. The study aims to deepen the understanding of howmunicipal officials perceive the distribution of responsibility, collaboration, and capacity inclimate adaptation work.The study is based on a qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews withofficials working with strategic planning, water and sewage management, and climateadaptation. The theoretical framework draws on the concept of responsibility distribution,collaboration, and capacity.The results show that organizational conditions differ between the municipalities.

Statkraft är helägt av Norska staten och är Sveriges fjärde största elproducent. Detta examensarbete syftar till att ta fram en metod för att lösa hur Statkraft Sverige AB ska lagra mjukvarubackuper av sina lokalkontrollssystem. För närvarande finns det ingen homogen lagringsmetod för backuper på företaget och problemet som ska lösas i examensarbetet är hur man kan lagra backuper från ett flertal heterogena system på en gemensam lagringsplattform. I och med att de allra flesta hjälpsystem för konfigurering av styrdatorer (PLC) bygger på Microsoft DOS/Windows så är det relativt enkelt att överföra backuper till en gemensam plattform. För äldre hjälpmedel kan man dock tänka sig att virtualisera hjälpmedlen på en nyare PC-dator med exempelvis VMware för att undvika problem som kan uppstå med äldre hårdvara.