Title: CSR and profitability in three dimensions ? practical examples, Economic Value Added and previous researchAuthors: Linda-Marie Emilsson & Martina Classon Subject: Business AdministrationDate: 2011-05-26Mentor: Krister BredmarProblem description: Scientists have for a very long time disagreed about whether or not companies should work with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and if there is any correlation between CSR and profitability. There are mainly three different views according the correlation: CSR have a neutral impact on financial performance, CSR have a positive impact on profitability and CSR have a negative impact on profitability. One of the reasons behind the disagreement is the complexity measuring CSR. Scientist claims that EVA is a measure that can be used to measure the correlation between CSR and profitability.        Purpose: The intention with our essay is to find out if there is any correlation between CSR and profitability.

Recently, the selections of ethical funds are increased; at the same time investors with social and moral preferences have increased in the capital market. There are currently debates on whether ethical funds perform better or worse than funds without ethical criteria. This also involves a vivid discussion on whether investors know about the consequences of investing in ethical funds. Therefore, this study involves theories about the rationality and decision theory, in addition to what mainly control the investment decisions. The study also discusses portfolio theory since this is one of the underlying theories behind fund management and its development.The purpose of this study is to explain if ethical limitations in the selection of securities affect risk and return in the fund portfolio.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV?s) are nowadays greatly appreciated. The advantage over manned airplanes are great since UAV?s can be much smaller and therefore lighter. The goal of this project is to evaluate the performance of an environmentally friendly UAV using only lithium-ion batteries.

There is a lot of research made on second language (L2) learning (Jesney, 2004). However the relationship between foreign accent, intelligibility and acoustics within pronunciation tutoring is quite an unresearched area (Thorén, 2008). The aim of the study was to analyze how a course in Swedish pronunciation affected foreign accent, intelligibility and acoustics among L2-learners of Swedish. A total of 41 people participated in the study: 16 L2-learners, 4 native Swedish speakers consisting a control group and 21 perceptual assessors with Swedish as native language. The L2-learners foreign accent and intelligibility were rated by the listeners before and after a course in Swedish pronunciation on an eight-point Likert-scale.

Background Research concerning footing and its contribution to injuries has been conducted primarily in racing Thoroughbreds. Studies in UK and Japan indicate that some specific factors could be responsible for an increase in performance-associated injuries. Researchers in Sweden have performed studies on Standardbred trotters. More research is needed to be done on equestrian sports since requirements on footing are not exactly the same in riding and trotting horses. The lack of scientific evidence on the construction of equestrian surfaces has lead to anecdotal validation of designs.

The objective of this M. Eng. Diploma work was to validate the new version, CASMO-5M, and compare the results with CASMO-4E, by using the same input in both programs. The tasks that were included in this work was to compare TIP-measures, k-effective curves (warm), k-effective curves (cold), the effect of void on k-effective, the isothermal temperature coefficient (ITC), the moderator temperature coefficient (MTC), damping ratio calculations, internal effect in a fuel bundle of a BA-rod, the speed of BA-out burn, impact of xenon, falling control rod, margins and isotopes.The TIP-measures showed that the differences were small for all reactors, at most, 6% nodal improvement by C5M (Casmo-5M) for Oskarshamn 3. The warm measurements of k-effective showed that C5M had a higher value for all cycles of Oskarshamn 1, 2 and 3 in comparison to C4E (Casmo-4E).

This study is about howStockholm?s policy for zero tolerance of graffiti from 2007 affected the graffiti culture inStockholm. We have researched what consequences there were for the practice of graffiti, and what consequences there were for the stylistic performance of graffiti. In doing so, we have had two focus group interviews and one deep interview including eight graffiti writers from Stockholm. The individuals in the groups have been practising graffiti for a varied amount of time, but we have representation from both before, and after/during the policy of zero tolerance from 2007. Our study shows that the result ofStockholm?s policy for zero tolerance of graffiti for the graffiti culture inStockholmwas a ?subcultureification?, a ?stylistic generalization? and the ?subculture?s ambivalent identity?.

Companies today are expected to communicate their responsibility to the world around them. Society?s expectations differ and stakeholders are demanding that companies act responsibly on matters related to climate, work environment and human rights. The purpose of sustainability reports is that companies should measure, present and take responsibility in relation to their internal and external stakeholders. It is intended that a reasonable picture of the company's sustainability performance should be communicated, containing both positive and negative effects.Companies efforts with sustainability issues is industry-dependent and industries with significant environmental problems perform the most advanced environmental statement.

The goals of this Bachelors? Thesis were to establish the production loss through the VTIS1 Pasteur at Arla Foods Linköping dairy and then suggest simple but effective solutions to minimize the losses for each production run. If the timeframe allowed it, some of the solutions would be implemented and tested in full production to determine their impact on economic and environmental savings.The very first step of this project was to establish the statistics over what losses there is in the production pipeline through VTIS1, from milk and powders in mixer tanks to finished and packed products in cold storage. Then, when knowing how much product was actually lost and where, those bottlenecks could be pinpointed and examined more closely. At this stage the focus was switched, from the otherwise complicated and broad manufacturing process, to the VTIS1-aggregate, since early data indicated there were quite substantial losses there.In conjunction with this project Arla Foods purchased an absorption photometer-measuring device (OPTEK AS16) that could be inserted straight into the product stream out of VTIS1, allowing real time measurements of its optical density.

Sahlgrenska Academy at University of GothenburgDepartment of Internal medicine and Clinical nutritionAbstractTitel: Can omega-3 prevent the emergence of allergy?? A systematic reviewAuthor: Karin Andersson and Cecilia BjörertzSupervisor: Henriette PhilipsonExaminer: Anna WinkvistProgramme: Dietician study programme, 180/240 hpType of paper: Examination paper, 15 hpDate: 2012-05-23Background Today allergy is a major public health issue and one of our most common chronic diseases. It would be most profitable if there was a way to prevent the emergence of allergies, both regarding the community and the individual. The antiinflammatory property of omega-3 influences the immune system and is thought to have a preventive effect on allergic symptoms. To investigate whether the mothers intake of omega-3 during pregnancy and lactation affects the child?s future development of allergy is therefore of high interest.Objective To examine if omega-3 supplement given to mothers during pregnancy, or pregnancy and lactation, is shown to be beneficial in children with heredity to develop allergy.Search strategy Articles were collected from the data bases PubMed, Cochrane and Scopus.

Today there is still irrelevant pay differential in society. In Sweden in 2010, the average pay differential was 15,4 percent between the sexes. Only 0,8 percent better than EU:s average.In Sweden the individual salaries increasingly have begun to characterize the Swedish labor market. Based on this, the aim of this study is to highlight the issue of equal pay between men and women from the perspective of individual salary. This would also been doing with a background in the regulatory environment of equal pay.When it comes to equality between women and men it is the area of labor law in EU who is the most developed and in Sweden this is the area who is most affected by EU law.

Records of P III fractures from 235 horses, 71 of them were standardbreds, treated at 3 major Swedish equine hospitals (Strömsholm, SLU and Mälaren hästklinik) between 1994 and 2004 were evaluated for information such as the patients age, sex, breed, type of fracture, affected leg, time and place of the injury, treatment and, if possible, result of treatment. For the standardbreds, result of treatment was also followed up through written correspondence with owners and by screening AB Trav och Galopp racing-results. Moreover, results of horses with type II and III-fractures treated with rest and therapeutic shooing only were compared to horses in which lag screw fixation were added to achieve interfragmental compression. Compared to the rest of the Swedish horse population, P III fractures were slightly more common among standardbred horses. The mean age of the affected standardbred was 5,8 years, compared to 7,9 years in the rest of the horse-population. Most horses injured themselves in the paddock.

In line with Sloan (1996) but on European data (STOXX 600) we are investigating whether stock prices reflect information about future earnings contained in the accrual and cash flow components. The extent to which current earnings performance persists into the future earnings performance is shown to depend on the relative magnitudes of the cash and accrual components of current earnings. Moreover, we still find a significant positive excess return (Jensen?s alpha and size-adjusted return) by replicating Sloans (1996) hedge portfolio by taking a long position in the stock of firms reporting relatively low levels of accruals and a short position in the stock of firms reporting relatively high levels of accruals. However, we find no evidence of negative excess returns for companies with relatively high accruals, this somewhat lower the total excess returns for all the portfolios.

In line with Sloan (1996) but on European data (STOXX 600) we are investigating whether stock prices reflect information about future earnings contained in the accrual and cash flow components. The extent to which current earnings performance persists into the future earnings performance is shown to depend on the relative magnitudes of the cash and accrual components of current earnings. Moreover, we still find a significant positive excess return (Jensen?s alpha and size-adjusted return) by replicating Sloans (1996) hedge portfolio by taking a long position in the stock of firms reporting relatively low levels of accruals and a short position in the stock of firms reporting relatively high levels of accruals. However, we find no evidence of negative excess returns for companies with relatively high accruals, this somewhat lower the total excess returns for all the portfolios.

Kopplingar mellan interna prestationsmätningar och ständig förbättring undersöks genom fallstudie av IKEA Food Service. Uppsatsen genererar fem hypoteser kring ämnet..