The interest in businesses active on the countryside and their funding situation has increased in recent years. In a survey, conducted by Leif Berndtsson (2003), it was reported that there is a lack of external capital in rural areas. According to Berndtsson (2003) the lack of external capital inhibits the rural firm?s growth. The essay attempts to answer whether the shortage of external capital is a factor that inhibits development for rural businesses.

This Bachelor thesis examines the possibility of replacing an outdated, analog video recording system to a digital counterpart. It is key that the video and audio signals remain synchronized, generator locked and time stamped. It is up to nine different video sources and a number of audio sources to be recorded and treated in such a manner which enables synchronized playback. The  different video sources do not always follow a universal standard, and differ from format as well as resolution. This thesis aims to compare a number of state of the art commercial of the shelf solutions with proprietary hardware.

Background: The meeting industry has had undergone a extensive changes due to a number of factors. The globalization has meant that supply increases and congress organizers have more options to choose from. Development in communications, for instance internet, means that meetings can take place without a physical presence. Congress organizers as clients have also changes. Stockholm as position as a leading city to hold congresses in has also changed for the worse, in 2006 Stockholm dropped of the top-10 list.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how a local community, and those who dwell within its borders, are affected when a large scale windmill park is planned in its immediate vicinity. I have used a qualitative approach and conducted semi structured interviews to gather empirical data. The study took place in a small Swedish village named Svartnäs, situated in the region Dalarna.I have used the concept of community as a symbolic construction (Cohen 1984), that together with the theory of structuration (Giddens 1984) and the notion of expert system (Giddens 1996) served as my main theoretical perspectives.Even though the windmill park is not built yet, its impact on the people and the local community of Svartnäs has been considerable. In the traces of the new windmill park new options and constraints, that will play an important role in the lives of the people who dwell in Svartnäs, are arising. The windmill project is enlarging old conflicts and is creating a divided village.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the use and losses of energy in an existing older building. Another purpose was also to look through various options for heating systems with renewable energy in the building. The aim was to reduce the use and losses of energy. The first step was to study the related electricity bills of the building and also perform measurements and calculations of the building envelope and ventilation. The next step was to find out the possible actions for energy saving by performing measurements and calculations.

Exposing products is important in the retail industry and the development is constantly moving forward. Shops usually have a special product, they want to sell more because of various reasons. How to expose that particular product sold most of there are various theories. What this report is about is a theory that seeks to stores use a "decoy". It carried out to see if this theory was still current was that three interviews took place with two store managers and a CEO for various grocery stores.

Many tropical rain forests has been lost or degraded as a result of human activities and environmental factors. Since the level of biodiversity is high in the tropics, maintaining these areas is of great importance. Forests like these are often assumed to benefit from forest restoration and rehabilitation. The INIKEA project area in Eastern Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, aims to improve biodiversity and/or species richness in the degraded forest through enrichment planting with indigenous species. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate how different treatments (liberation, gap-cluster planting and line planting) affect the biodiversity of natural regeneration in different forest types in the Rain forest Restoration Experiment, located in the INIKEA project area.

The purpose of the research is to find out how the teacher of the pre-school looks at the value of the nature Pre-school. To get an understanding of what the nature pre-school enviorment can bring, we are talking about learning, knowledge, and experience combined with the everyday lessons learned from the natural world. The research is a stepping stone on the pre-school teacher?s thoughts and reflections of what a nature pre-school is. This is grounded in a view of how having options for alternative schools lead to wider research, and all conclusions where formed after multiple interviews and analysis.The results showed that the teachers involved are very positive to the nature pre-school environment and learning process.

The main purpose of the essay was to evaluate whether investments in index-linked bonds were suitable investments for smaller investors on the international finance market. To determine whether the index-linked bonds are good investments, the variables yield, cost and risk were used to measure the index-linked bonds against investments in stocks and funds. The reason for the interest in this subject is that investments in index-linked bonds have grown furiously the last few years. With the growth of the investments the criticism of index-linked bonds has also grown stronger. The critics? main point is the cost of the product, and they imply that investors can create their own index-linked bond and thereby avoid the bank fees.This study used a quantitative approach, because all the data of yield, cost and risk consist of numbers.

The purpose of the thesis has been to explore the use of hedge fund styles when constructing portfolios of hedge funds (i.e. funds of hedge funds). The central question is if the use of hedge fund styles can significantly explain and improve risk adjusted returns (characterized by Sharpe ratios). The study has been done in collaboration with Optimized Portfolio Management AB who desire further knowledge and evaluation of hedge fund styles for their fund of hedge funds.To be able to create successful ex ante portfolios we have explored various prediction models for both risk and return. Our findings indicate that return prediction is problematic using simple models such as regression since the risk exposure of the indices appear to change significantly over time.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to find out the possibilities for librarians and book bloggers to collaborate. We find this relevant because of blogs being a new medium that could be useful for librarians to embrace. Book blogs are often networks of blogs connected to each other through their common interest in literature and we have examined how this could be of use for librarians.The method we have used is semi-structured interviews, which gave us the possibility to adjust our questions based on the informants? answers, when necessary. Our informants have been both librarians and book bloggers; we have met some of them and interviewed the others by e-mail.

Clinicians in veterinary practice have responsibilities for the development of global antibiotic resistance. In some cases, antibiotics are contraindicated or even useless in wound treatments and therefore other options are needed. Antiseptics may be another option but their use are controversial and may be questioned by owners. As professionals, it may be very difficult to be able to motivate this choice of treatment. The aim of this paper is to gain knowledge about four antiseptics; iodine, silver, polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) and honey to make it easier for veterinary nurses and other clinicians in veterinary practices to decide their potential use. The assessment will be made with consideration of the available evidence concerning the properties, usability and the animal?s experience. The results showed a lack of evidence in in-vivo studies in horses, particularly studies within the field of veterinary nursing.

  During the 2000s, the ship owners have become more and more concerned thattheir ships save fuel. Several projects have been undertaken to exploit the resourcesavailable on board today?s vessels to reduce fuel consumption. As a stepin this the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) today offera Weather Routing service to ships. By planning your route more effectivelymuch fuel can be saved.This thesis has been about developing a fuel prediction program (FPP) forhow much fuel a ship consumes in different sea conditions.

In order to reduce the number of casualties and injured from accidents the rescue service must become more efficient and flexible. It is noted that far more people is injured and killed in traffic accidents than from fires. During the daytime the number of accidents in about three times higher than during the night, even so today the number of fire fighters on duty is the same day and night.Two computer models for simulation of different locations of the rescue services are used to determine the best options for placement of the rescue services. A cost-benefit analysis is also used to determine if today's fire stations are efficient for the society from an economical point of view.The results of the different models are that the fire station in Lund is misplaced. The number of ladders in Malmö can be reduced.

This thesis deals with options about information technology in education, the starting pointbeing a project in progress, namely Ostindieprojektet. This is the first collaboration betweenDatatorget and Stadsmuséet in Göteborg. The research is built on a phenomenological approach.The "backbone" information is collected from qualitative interviews, conducted mainlyduring March-April 1995.The questions for the interviews deal with the opinions about the reasons with Ostindieprojektetand IT in education, what conditions required to complete Ostindieprojektet and the ITdevelopment, the availability of the material, how IT-use can affect education, possible qualitiesfor the student with IT-use and how IT-use can affect the role of the school-1ibrary as ateaching tool.Some key subjects examined in the thesis deals with governmental investigations, viewsabout pedagogic and knowledge, problem-based leaming, computer-based education and therole of the school-library. The research shows that the interviewers have the same opinionsas the above mentioned key subjects. In completing the thesis we hope we have created aforum for critical discussion..