The purpose of this paper is to investigate if a dynamic investment strategy on the Swedish asset market can accomplish better returns then a static investment strategy. The dynamic investment strategy is created by incorporating business cycle predictors and firm-level variables to predict future stock returns. The predictive regression is calculated wih 60 months of observation (1999 01-2005 12) and is then used to estimate future returns for 23 months in the period 2004 01 -2005 11. The structure of the regression, with linear functions of ? and ?, goes back to Shanken (1990) and Avramov and Chordia (2005) has had success with the variables chosen.

This bachelor degree project was carried out at Saab AB Service and Repair, Arboga, Sweden. The objective was to design, construct and implement a new stable and reliable method of measuring the continuous vertical displacement (height) of the military search radar PS861 mounted on a hydraulic powered elevator. The end product needs to be durable enough to be fully operational in the harsh environment of an outdoor elevator shaft and yet as accurate and precise as possible since one of its purposes is to calibrate control equipment. Previously used technique has proven not to meet any of the above mentioned properties.A prototype using a high resolution quadrature output rotary encoder has been developed, allowing a completely digital interface. This new method has been evaluated in laboratory environment where tests have been conducted regarding both reliability and validity.

An instrument for assessing children's attitude towards speech,communication, and communicative participation suitable for children withcleft lip and palate has been missing in speech- and language pathology. Inthe present study a new instrument Självsvarsformulär Om Tal OchKommunikation was tested on typically developed school children. The aimwas to obtain norm values for children in grade 4 and 7 and to examine thereliability and validity of the instrument. 104 children participated. Data wascollected in groups of 5-6 children.

The Private Equity industry has over the past years been booming and major external environmental changes have made the industry transform rapidly. Increased competition between Private Equity firms is one of the reasons why the industry has been and is being forced to focus more on addition of value through increased operational management. Consequently, the focus of value addition is by some said to be transferred away from deal making and financial skills, and into active operative management. This case study investigates how the portfolio management, and more specifically the measuring and management of performance, is carried out in a number of leading Swedish Private Equity funds with investments in the biotech sector. The biotech sector is characterized by extensive research and development, and many biotech companies often lack income and other measurable financial parameters in the initial phase.

Youth unemployement in Sweden is at an all-time high, a fifth of all university and college students live in poverty and the number of young on welfare is increasing. This study attempts to answer the question of how youth deprivation has been made possible as a consequence of political action, focusing on youth unemployment.I critically examine the role of the Swedish government, the Swedish Labour Organisation (LO), and the various government departments through text analysis, in order to answer the question of how the current discourse on youth position in the labor market. Because youth unemployment is not an isolated phenomena the analysis covers several policy areas, such as education policy, labor market regulation and housing policy. I use discourse theories drawn from Laclau and Mouffe to expose how language is used as an instrument of political power.I conclude that the current situation is a result of policy choices where the young have fallen behind due to lack of political organization. Their situation is not problematized to the required degree and is often explained on an individual level rather than on a structural level..

A performance measurement system can be used as a means to evaluate past performances and to communicate prioritizations. It has also been proposed that a performance measurement system can serve as a method to execute strategies, guide in operational decisions and constitute a tool for making the organization more efficient. Yet one may question if such a system will ever reach this capacity if operating managers do not utilize it as a management tool, but rather treat it as a mere report in the bunch. This paper explores how middle managers in fact apply performance measures and what obstacles there are to integrating them in the management of subunits. Furthermore it serves to investigate whether these managers experience a conflict between how they are expected to use the measures and what they deem possible to adopt.

Sweden is a world leader in listed private equity and ranked fifth in the world in market capitalization. The sector is attracting increasing interest from the investment community. However, the private equity industry in Sweden has historically poor reputation and is criticized for creating value through high leverage, multiple riding and severe cuts. This study analyzes value creation drivers in buyouts from the perspective of the private equity firm using a dataset of 15 realized buyouts by private equity firms listed on NASDAQ OMX Nordic Stockholm. The methodology used separates the value contribution of leverage on the private equity firm's return from internal operational improvements and external variations in transaction multiples.

When a child is hospitalized, it is usually more than one person who needs attention ? i.e. the child as well as its parents. The emergency ward environment and surgery rooms are unfamiliar and the parents feel anxious, insecure and uncertain about how to act. They are expected to participate in the child?s care, cope with their own anxiety and simultaneously convey a sense of security and stability to the child.

VBG Produkter AB is a process-orientated company that develops, manufactures and markets trailer couplings with belonging coupling equipment, protection equipment against skidding and stands for wagon-bridge for heavy vehicles. The company feels that their set-up time in production for couplings is not at an acceptable level. Due to high demands of customer oriented production the intermediate stock level of included products within the assembly of couplings has gradually increased which has resulted in high inventory holding costs. VBG Produkter applies Kanban in their production, therefore it is important to produce exactly the necessary amount and avoid overproduction. The objective of this project is to suggest appropriate solutions so that VBG Produkter is able to reduce their set-up time in assembly of couplings, by identifying internal and external set-up time for the chosen process bushing cell.

The aim of this study is to examine the legal regulation regarding the psychosocial work environment for temporary agency workers. Furthermore, the aim of the study is to examine how temporary agency workers perceive their psychosocial work environment, and possible consequences of such perception. The methodology of the study consists of practical legal method and qualitative method in the form of interviews.The results show that the psychosocial work environment for temporary agency workers is regulated at both the EU legal level by Directive as well as at national level in Arbetsmiljölagen and regulations issued by Arbetsmiljöverket. The study finds that health and safety responsibility for temporary agency workers is shared between the agency and the client company. The result of the study indicates that there are shortcomings in the introduction and training of temporary agency workers, which can contribute to an unsatisfactory work environment.

The purpose of this essay was to describe and analyse the tension/conflict between external demands and actual conditions, as experienced (and told in interviews) by employees at two social insurance offices in Scania, concerning their roles in the process of working life rehabilitation. The theoretical starting point is the theory of street-level bureaucrats, as defined by Lipsky. The comprehension among the employees were that working life rehabilitation services are approved less today compared to a few years ago. The discretion, i.e. the position to choose among competing alternatives; about what to do, how to do it etc., characteristic of street-level bureaucrats, according to the employees is less prominent, as the routines of handling cases and decision making are regulated.

Our purpose of this paper is to seek an understanding of which service quality factors that affects customers in their decision making progress regarding purchasing financial services such as pension products. We also seek to evaluate the different service quality factors by compare their relative strength against each other. The study aim to investigate if there are any connections between customer behavior variables such as gender, age and income in comparison to these service quality factors related to pension products.The findings aim to help a small financial institute such as our case company Plain Capital to understand how their customers experience service quality regarding pension products.In order to find empirical results we conducted a qualitative research as well a quantitative research. The qualitative research employed both a focus group interview with pension savers and an interview with our case company Plain Capital. We were able to identify the service quality factors for pension?s products with help from the focus group interview.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how important computers are for text production in upper secondary school level, and to find out what attitudes some students have towards computers in writing classes. I have let 44 students in the Swedish gymnasium course Swedish B write an argumentative essay. Half of the group wrote using paper and pencil, and the other half used computers. The essays were graded, and the language and length of the texts were analyzed. The students also filled in a questionnaire with questions on computer aided writing classes.The results showed that the texts that were written with computers contained a significant larger amount of words and fewer spelling mistakes.

The hypothesis of this study is that the local government act in Sweden 1862 was an instrument for the state to keep its´ political influence on the local level. It did not open for local self-government. The swedish historians Dahlkvist and Strandberg description of the Swedish local government act support this hypothesis, as does the analysis of political scientists Pettersson and Söderlind. The general opinion that the local government act opened for local self-government does still exist among many swedish historians.This study had two aims. The first was to investigate the actual extent of self-government in Borgvik, a small municipality in Sweden during the period 1861-1924.

This paper investigates narrative and thematic structures in Damien Echols? autobiography Life After Death (2012) and Stephen King?s horror novel ?Salem?s Lot (1975). In Life After Death Echols tells the tale of his eighteen-year incarceration on Death Row in Arkansas/USA. He also uses his childhood memories to overcome hardships in the prison system. ?Salem?s Lot by Stephen King deals with the invasion of vampires in a small town in rural Maine in the North East corner of the United States.  The author of this study discusses if and how Damien Echols was inspired in his writing by the writings of Stephen King.