In this thesis, the Swedish venture capital market and its profitability is analyzed. Venture capital is defined as capital that is invested in the early stages of a company's life cycle, in the two investment stages seed/start-up and expansion.A common view is that the profitability of Swedish venture capital has not been, is not and will probably not become high either. With this in mind, we try to answer to the following questions in this thesis:? What has the profitability of Swedish venture capital actually been historically?? Which reasons could be found in order to explain the historical returns for Swedish venture capital, and which factors has been identified in international comparative studies between venture capital markets?In order to answer these questions, data showing historical returns for the Swedish, European and American venture capital market has been gathered, an extensive literature study has been performed, and three interviews with participants from the Swedish venture capital market has been conducted.We conclude that the historical returns of Swedish venture capital is in line with the general view that they have been low. We also see a trend where Swedish venture capital funds that are not specialized in one investment stage generate lower returns than more specialized funds.

Abstract The accident in 1986 at the nuclear power station in Chernobyl, Ukraine, dispersed radioactive cesium over large areas of Europe. The half life of 137Cs is 30 years and this radionuclide also behaves like potassium, which means that it can easily be taken up by the vegetation or be adsorbed in to the structure of clays, principally illitic clays. When radiocesium decays ionizing radiation is emitted, which is harmful to humans that are exposed, either directly or indirectly through food intake. It is there-fore important to know what happens to the cesium that is dispersed into the environ-ment. In this project a simulation model was constructed to simulate the adsorption and transport of radiocesium in the soil and plant uptake.

People in Sweden and in Europe have been traveling a lot more lately. Because of the economic boom that has been in a lot of countries people do have more money to spend. Sweden and especially Stockholm has lately become a very popular destination. Also big congresses and business meetings like to choose Stockholm for their meetings. The capital as it looks today does not have the capacity to let all those people stay at the hotels at the same time.

People in Sweden and in Europe have been traveling a lot more lately. Because of the economic boom that has been in a lot of countries people do have more money to spend. Sweden and especially Stockholm has lately become a very popular destination. Also big congresses and business meetings like to choose Stockholm for their meetings. The capital as it looks today does not have the capacity to let all those people stay at the hotels at the same time.

Background and problemThe Swedish mobile market is highly competitive despite the oligopoly that currently exists. A short product life cycle together with fads and new innovations puts pressure on the operators to respond to the ever changing environment and to develop and adapt their strategies after it.As a previous study regarding a specific operator?s strategy was cancelled due to the extensive confidentiality surrounding it, an interest was sparked to perform an industry analysis as this is clearly something the actors spend a great deal of time on developing. The launch of the 4G network will offer new opportunities for the operators regarding products services. It may also impact the competition on the overall market.PurposeThe purpose of this thesis is to present a deep analysis of the industry and give the reader a comprehensive picture of existing conditions.

This thesis deals with the numerical 3D simulation of a four stroke, spark-ignited, internalcombustion engine, which is mounted on a high performance motorcycle. The work, carried outin collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and MV Agusta, focuses on the simulation of theintake, compression and expansion stroke, including combustion simulation, using an opensource CFD code.Simulation of internal combustion engines offers a great challenge in the field of CFD research.Moving boundaries of the solution domain, caused by the motion of the piston and valves, leadsto deformation of the computational grid, with decreasing quality of the solution as result. Basedon this, a previously developed mesh motion strategy was employed where a number of meshesare used to cover the whole simulation cycle. Within each mesh interval the internal cell pointsof the mesh are moved to account for the boundary motion of the piston and valves. This strategywas previously applied to simplified geometries as well as real engine geometries.

Antalet övervakningskameror i samhället ökar, samtidigt som deras miljöpåverkan är relativt okänd. För en produkt som tidigare bara utvärderats gällande prestanda, börjar kunderna nu efterfråga en kartläggning av miljöpåverkan. Kamerans miljöpåverkan studeras ur ett livscykelperspektiv: energi- och materialtillförsel samt utsläpp och avfall som berör allt ifrån råmaterialutvinning till slutåtervinning. Projektet är genomfört på begäran av, och för, Axis Communications AB (härmed refererade till som Axis) med huvudsyfte att öka Axis kunskap om deras produkters miljöpåverkan och utveckla en metod för genomförande av förenklade livscykelanalyser på Axis produkter. Livscykelanalysen, LCA, genomförs på en nätverkskamera utvecklad av Axis Communications AB; modell AXIS Q6032-E PTZ.

This thesis, designed as a case study, is about complications concerning conservation of a decorative oil paint on lime plaster from the drawing-room in Mostorp castle sited in the county of Halland in south-west of Sweden. The building was built 1878-80 with an exterior of granite. The interior walls were made of clay bricks, lime mortar and lime plaster. The oil paint is applied to a layer of putty. The combination of different materials, which are organic and inorganic, affects the movement caused by internal and external stress.

The environmental demands are increasing when it comes to product development. EcoDesign isabout minimizing the environmental impact of a product, considering the entire life cycle of it,without compromising other qualities like function or cost. In this master of science thesis amobile phone has been analysed with Ten Golden Rules in EcoDesign regarding production, useand End of Life. Also a functional and an environmental profile were made. The goal was tomake a new concept phone, based on the previous analysis, which communicates userfriendlinessand sustainable development.

Technology based self-service (TBSS) used in supermarket self-scanning checkouts is a relatively new phenomenon in Sweden. Studies on TBSS as a self- checkout device have been formerly carried out but with focus on the customer perspective. The authors therefore saw a challenge in covering the self-scan checkout concept, from a company perspective. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate, through a management perspective, the changes brought about by implementing an innovative TBSS system in Swedish supermarkets, and its effect on the competitiveness of the company. This is done by presenting and linking the theoretical framework and empirical study in the research.

The real estate company Ihus is facing an expansion of its comfort cooling in Noatun,Uppsala, to provide the buildings in the block with cooling. The buildings in Noatunare mainly used for office premises, where the requirements for an accepted indoorclimate is great. However, it?s uncertain whether Ihus should continue, as currently,producing comfort cooling by themselves using a compressor chiller, or if they shouldconnect themselves to Vattenfall?s district cooling net.The purpose of this report is to examine which technique of cooling is best suited forIhus and their buildings in Noatun. It should also work as a guideline for othercompanies facing the same problem as Ihus.

In Sweden, harvesting pre-commercial thinning (PCT) stems for energy purposes is a interesting way of financing the high cost of preparing dense stands for a profitable first conventional thinning. This concept can be labelled bioenergy thinning. The aim of this study was to quantify the productivity of a Vimek 404R light harvester with an accumulating Naarva-Grip cutting head during the bioenergy thinning of a self-regenerated stand west of Sunnansjö in Dalarna. The stand was birch-dominated, contained 15 371 stems/ha, and measured on average 4,6 cm Dbh and 7 m tall. Even though the driver was well experienced with the machine, the stand in question was the first one that he ever thinned in this manner. Nevertheless, the driver strived to accumulate as many stems as possible during each crane cycle and chose to cut taller stems in half so as to make the handling and forwarding of the harvested stems easier.

During the 19-century a global warming has been observed, which includes increases in global air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of ice and snow, and rising global sea level. There is a clear connection between emissions of greenhouse gases caused by the human and the increase in temperature. Climatic changes caused by global warming can be stopped trough decreased emission of fossil fuels, for example by an increased use of biogas. Biogas is a renewable energy source which is produced through anaerobic (oxygen free) digestion of organic material. The gas is a mixture of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and can be among others used as fuel in vehicles.

The limit for mercury in fish, set by health authorities, is exceeded in about half of the lakes in Sweden. Methyl mercury (MeHg) is the most toxic form of mercury and accumulates in fish. Therefore transformation of inorganic mercury (Hg) to methylmercury (MeHg) is an important process that we need to understand in order to possibly counteract the negative effects of mercury in the environment. The seasonal dynamics of mercury biogeochemistry is likely of great importance for the accumulation of MeHg in the aquatic food web. In thesis the chemical speciation and transformations of Hg and MeHg in bottom waters and sediments is followed in Ängessjön, a small lake located on the east coast in the middle of Sweden. The lake is not directly affected by any industrial pollution and concentrations of Hg in the sediment reflect the atmospheric deposition in this area, as well as processes taking place along the hydrological pathways from soil to lake. Samples from sediment, bottom- and streamwater were collected in average every second month during the period Feb.

During half a century the society has been changed from an industrial to knowledge-driven society. Industry companies have standardized requirements and companies that works with development in production has unique qualifications. The public employment office was created during a time that each tailored to then general requirements were dominating and the adaptation average appropriate worker and appropriate work where general. When the monopoly was stopped, crew companies begun to settle down on the market that flexibly adapt themselves to carried out now specialized needs that require sophisticated adaptation average work and job seekers. Companies lose the confidence for the public employment office and politicians threaten the organization with big closure.