This study examines whether there is an association between the length of the client-auditor relationship and audit quality, using absolute unexpected accruals estimated by industry as a measure of audit quality based on a modified Jones model. The study is motivated by the proposal on mandatory audit firm rotation for publicly traded companies from the European Commission, which is based on the notion that longer auditor firm tenure creates a familiarity threat which reduces the audit quality. Both the relation between audit quality and auditor partner tenure and audit firm tenure is examined in this study, using multivariate regression controlling for auditor type (Big 4 versus non-Big 4), signing auditors (one versus two auditors), firm size, profitability, leverage and age. There is a significant negative relationship between audit quality and audit partner tenure when only companies employing Big 4 is tested, which indicate that auditors constrain managements extreme accounting measures with longer tenure. The results provide no significant evidence of an increase in the absolute unexpected accruals with audit firm tenure, when only Big 4 companies are tested.

The Swedish pulp and paper industry meets higher demand for energy efficiencyi mprovements with increasing energy prices and changes in the Swedish renewable energy certificate system. One action of energy efficiency improvement is by using secondary heat, that otherwise would have been treated as waste heat, for use in a system with lower temperature demands. The aim of this Master´s thesis is to identify possible secondary heat sources in a typical Swedish pulp and paper mill and to investigate what economic benefits the secondary heat will provide when being used for pre heating of wood chips to a kraft digester.The Master´s thesis focuses on three secondary heat sources; dry warm air, warm water and moisture saturated warm air located inside the pulp or paper mill. Two types of kraft digesters are simulated within this study, a typical Scandinavian digester and a modern twin vessel steam phase digester.Due to quality aspects and low temperature level drying is the drying technology with dry warm air rejected. Using warm water in direct contact with wood chips increases the quantity of water to the evaporation plant and thus reduced pulp or paper production and is therefore also rejected.

This thesis has treated a three-axis robot which task is to serve a larger test machine tomove the modules to be tested, from the storage to the test site. The robot is composed ofthree linear actuators; two standard components of ball screw type and a custom-builtactuator of trapezoidal type. The work has mainly focused on the custom-built device to seeif it could be replaced with a standard component. Part of the work has been to look into thepicking tool and to see if there are any possibilities to improve its function.The report presents two different proposals which I decided to call Robot 1 and Robot 2 andthey aim to address the problems arising in the purpose-built linear unit and the X-axislinearity problems. Robot 1 focuses on eliminating the problems that arise around therobot's X-axis, with such simple means as possible and without making excessive materialchanges.

Med genteknik är det möjligt att ändra gensammansättningen i våra livsmedel och applikationen har väckt stort intresse, inte minst bland allmänheten. Genmodifierade (GM) livsmedel har varit föremål för diskussion sedan 1970-talet. Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera olika uppfattningar och representationer om genmodifierade livsmedel. Enligt teorin om sociala representationer har representationer dubbla funktioner. Den ena är att konventionalisera objekt och den andra innebär att representationerna intar en förutbestämd form.

Biogas is a gaseous fuel, rich in methane, produced through a biological route in an anaerobic digester. A gas engine generates combined heat and power, which can be used at the farm to reduce energy cost. The process also generates a digestate, with better utilization of nutrient compared to cattle manure. The aim of this study is to analyze the profitability of a farm-scale biogas plant for combined heat and power (CHP) at Wapnö. Wapnö is an agriculture company located in the southern part of Sweden.

In process oriented organizations, it is important to have well-functioning work processes tosupport the work being performed. In order to accomplish this, the organization has to makecertain decisions regarding the design and usage of the processes. This master thesis is based ona case study of a work process that is being used for the industrialization of products at Ericssonin Katrineholm. The aim of the study is twofold. One aim is to improve the studied process byidentifying improvement opportunities and carrying out the required adjustments.

Ternary codes for unequal error protection is a part of a communication system where different parts of the information to be transmitted can receive different amount of error protection. There are a lot of applications where the channel conditions fluctuate so that reliable or acceptable communication can not be guaranteed. Regardless whether the fluctuations of the channel are intentional or not the idea is to let the coderate decrease so that the error correcting capability can increase for the part of the information to be more protected. By using the support, the nonzero positions of the ternary code, a new binary code can be extracted with properties different from the ternary code in the sense of cardinality and minimum Hamming distance. When the channel conditions are good the receiver decodes the message using ternary decisions and receives all information included in the codeword.

Scania is among the leading companies in the heavy vehicle industry. Scania also assemble engines for their trucks and buses, as well as to external marine and industrial applications. Wrongly assembled parts leads to quality problems, which makes it important to secure that the assembly is correct. To do this Design For Assembly (DFA) is used to describe how parts should become easier to assemble. Scania?s production unit for engine assembly has had a working method for DFA in the shape of a checklist, which is not used.

Sustainability Reporting has emerged and transformed over the past decades as a voluntary practice by companies across industries that desire to show proof of good conduct and environmental; social; and economic responsibility. As industrial food production is one of the largest contributors to contemporary environmental problems, it might be expected that reporting within the industry would be both well established and well understood. Unfortunately, it is neither. In light of the food industry?s considerable environmental impact and the growing popularity of plant-based food as a more sustainable alternative to dairy products, this paper assesses and briefly discusses the Sustainability Reporting of two companies in the plant-based food and beverage industry. The research was designed to compare the practices of Europe-based Alpro and US-based SoDelicious, and this study has two major purposes: to describe the reporting of the case companies and to subsequently compare their practices to the other as well as to global reporting standards. The empirical study in this paper was conducted through content analysis.

In today's society, the internet is an important part of everyday life. Over recent years the number of electronic services has increased markedly. Communities such as Facebook, consume more of people's time than 5-10 years ago. How can public authorities benefit from these communities or are the municipalities not ready for this? The municipalities determine how their resources should be allocated based on the municipality's needs.

This is a thesis for a Bachelor Degree Project, performed in the subject MechanicalEngineering. The students Roger Malmberg and Simon Hagberg have carried out adesign project on behalf of the recently established company J&D Assisting systems,located in Halmstad.The project consisted in developing J&D's first prototype of a power assisting solutionfor wheelchairs. A power assisted wheelchair combines human power, which is deliveredby the arms through the pushrims, with electrical motors, which are powered by a battery.The power assisted wheelchair is aimed at customers, who have used a regularwheelchair for a long time, but who have become weaker or just need additional powerwhen driving uphill. This kind of wheelchair will provide additional power for users,which will spare their wrists, elbow and shoulders. The product is torque sensor free andinstead it relies on the velocity.

This thesis has treated a three-axis robot which task is to serve a larger test machine tomove the modules to be tested, from the storage to the test site. The robot is composed ofthree linear actuators; two standard components of ball screw type and a custom-builtactuator of trapezoidal type. The work has mainly focused on the custom-built device to seeif it could be replaced with a standard component. Part of the work has been to look into thepicking tool and to see if there are any possibilities to improve its function.The report presents two different proposals which I decided to call Robot 1 and Robot 2 andthey aim to address the problems arising in the purpose-built linear unit and the X-axislinearity problems. Robot 1 focuses on eliminating the problems that arise around therobot's X-axis, with such simple means as possible and without making excessive materialchanges.

The Swedish market for vehicle inspection is re-regulated since June 2010. More than four years after the re-regulation there are eight companies in the market. Two of these companies are a result of the former monopolist's owners divided the business among themselves. The remaining six companies have entered the market through acquisitions or by building up their business from scratch, these are known as new entrants in the study. The competition has developed slowly and the former monopolist still has the highest market share.

The purpose of this study is to get the cadastral procedure for condominiums to become more affordable. The aims of the study is to examine how the number of condominiums, the number of joint facilities and the number of joint property units that are formed in a condominium cadastral procedure in Sweden influences the cadastral procedure cost. To get an overall perspective the study also explores how the chosen forms of co-operation have worked out in association management.A condominium is a type of three-dimensional property unit, which may only contain one residence.  This form of property formation has been allowed in Sweden since 1 May 2009.  At the end of 2014 less than 1000 condominiums had been formed despite the legislator?s expectations for 3000-5000 condominiums a year. The property unit can have access to necessary facilities, not available within the property boundaries, by establishing joint facilities or form joint property units.

Crisis communication in today's society is an important element for organizations. Whether an organization makes it through a crisis, good or bad is largely based on their crisis communication work. Crisis communication is about how the organization works to repair or maintain the organization's external image, the image that society has about the organization. When a crisis occurs stakeholders lose confidence in the organization or change their mind about it.This case study is about exploring how a municipality handles crisis communication through the various phases of a crisis. The study is also to examine how the municipality communicates with its stakeholders in specific communication channels during a crisis.The case study makes use of theories circulating crisis communication, such as: theories of how crisis communication should be handled, how a crisis is recognized, the different phases of a crisis, the communication channels that can be used and who may be interested in an organization when a crisis reveals itself.