This project was initiated by a veterinarian, that at stallion performance tests for breeding during a number of years, noted breed differences in various types of testicular disorders. Therefore it was of interests to examine the proportion of testicular disorders within certain breeds. The aim with the project was in a first part to study cryptorchidism in common horse breeds in Sweden. Information about castrations of stallions performed during a 10 year period (2000-2009) was collected from computerized case records at five animal hospitals. The case records showed the numbers of castrations, normal cases and cases preformed on stallions with cryptorchidism, abdominal respectively inguinal.

This thesis aims to investigate the voting premium for companies differentiating voting rights between share classes on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The voting premium represents the value of a vote attached to the share. The voting premium can be estimated from the price premium between two listed share classes with differentiated voting rights. Rydqvist's dissertation (1987) serves as a model for this study which investigates whether the theory of the so called "oceanic games", along with a proxy variable for cost of control, can predict the voting premium during 2010-2012. To the original model developed by Rydqvist, control variables for differences in liquidity between share classes are added to investigate for an increase in the explanatory power.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of using more promotion material to enhance the in-store communication of sales promotion. In the retail industry today the research regarding the benefits from using various in-store promotion materials is limited, thus this study was carried out to bring clarity to this subject. The study is carried out in two pharmacies and the design of the study was to add more promotion materials to one store, while keeping the other store in its normal condition and then let the stores change conditions after one week e.g. latin-square design. The data collection of this study consists of four different methods: sales data, a questionnaire with 182 customers, an observation study of 300 consumers and an eye-tracking experiment with 41 participants.

Due to human influences on the climate an increase in Earth's mean temperature is today an accepted conception. With a rising temperature discussions have started how the climate in an area will change in the future. Equally interesting and important is it also to study the precipitation in an area. Precipitation is the factor, next to temperature, that affects most how a climate in an area looks like and feels. Since precipitation is connected to evaporation the latter parameter is also of interest to study.

Studies of networks, fields and of communicative circulations complement each other. This master thesis is a biographical study of an author and journalist, Gustaf Montgomery GM, his network in Sweden of the early 19th century, and a study of his authorship and literary career. The starting-point of the study is GM:s change of field from the conservative to the liberal in 1832. The aim is to give explanations to this change and to describe how the change in turn effected the network. The method used is critical of sources.

The implementation of large IT-systems is a complex area where many aspects have to be taken into account.KSU, Kärnkraftssäkerhet och Utbildning AB, is a small company in the Vattenfall group that is increasingly being urged to implement SAP, one of the largest ERP-systems on the market. Vattenfalls purpose with SAP is to centralize certain processes within economy that are common to all the companies in the group, this to gain benefits with economics of scale. However, KSU is not convinced that SAP is a suitable system and that the common processes apply to them.The purpose of this degree project is to investigate if SAP is a suitable system and if KSU will benefit from a transition to SAP. Three perspectives were applied to further specify important areas of the main question. From a technical point of view KSU:s demands on a system was mapped against SAP.

Denna studie går ut på att undersöka vilka mediekanaler unga förstagångsväljare använde sigav för att få politisk information innan och under riksdagsvalet 2010. Syftet är också attundersöka hur traditionella massmedier, som tidigare varit den dominerande källan förpolitisk information, står sig i relation till sociala medier i den fragmenterade medievärld vilever i idag. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten är utifrån Uses and Gratifications-teorin samttidigare forskning rörande förstagångsväljare och sociala medier. Metoddelen är kvantitativ iform av en frågeundersökning med gymnasieelever som läser sista året på gymnasiet.Datainsamlingen genomfördes i Sundsvall och Jönköping under december 2010. Resultatet visar att unga förstagångsväljare fortfarande anser att de traditionella medierna,främst TV, är de viktigaste för deras politiska information. Det framgår också i resultatet attdet politiska intresset hos unga ökar under valår.

The effects of the deregulation of the electricity market 1996 in Sweden on short-term hydropower regulation are unknown. This report investigates patterns in subdaily regulation in the Ångerman River Basin during the period 1993-2011. Differences in subdaily flows and zero flow events between the periods 1993-1995 and 1996-2011 were studied by analyzing hourly data from 8 regulated and 8 unregulated locations with four subdaily flow variation indices. No correlations between the market deregulation and the regulation intensity in the Ångerman River basin were detected. The number of days natural ranges of variability were exceeded and the magnitude of subdaily variation were significantly higher at regulated locations.

When a videogame is being played it is rarely a static experience. A videogame can consist of various systems that affect each other in an unpredictable manner which makes the player experience unique for every player.Throughout the years developers of games have used random chance in a games programming to affect the user experience. Sometimes it even goes so far as to having entire games based around the idea of the game itself randomly generating content for a player to experience.This paper will examine randomly generated content in videogames. It will take examples from existing ones and describe how they use it, and reason regarding the benefits and drawbacks of having random chance affect the user experience.The paper will step-by-step examine the purpose of various commonly occurring objects and features of a typical dungeon in an adventure videogame. It will reason around their purpose, and figure out ways to use them in a structured  manner so that we can guarantee that there will be no deadlocks that the player can't overcome.This will range from the environments in rooms, the shape of them, to the objects and creatures that inhabit them, such as locked doors, keys, and bosses.

The building industry are currently going through a huge alteration. The introduction of BIM (Building Information Modeling). Which also implements a lot of new ways of solving problems that building modeling can cause. This report is written for Uppsala University in cooperation with Temagruppen in Uppsala. However, it contains a comparison between two different systems that checks building models.

GPS is perhaps the future in agriculture. The next years will show it but the precision becomes only better and better and the number of users becomes only more and more. This work shows experiences from today's users and how the profitability can be improved on a farm with normal plant cultivation. The aim is to show how big the actual advantage can be to have a GPS and how good precision there is with the equipment. John Deere and Trimble are the big producers of GPS equipment to the agriculture.

Since the financial crisis of 2007, the global financial market has been characterized by instability. At the same time the banks? lending rates and its link to the reporänta have been in the spotlight in various debates in the media. The government with Anders Borg leading the charge has criticized the banks for not lowering their lending rates when the reporänta has been lowered. The banks defend themselves by saying that the reporänta does not have a direct link to their lending rates anymore.

Investment in hedge funds is a relatively new phenomenon for investors compared with other forms of savings. In recent years, the interest has increased among investors in investing their money in hedge funds, given the protection against declines in the market they are aiming for. Their main purpose is to generate a high return at a low risk regardless of market trends. This they can achieve by having fewer restrictions that offer more flexible investment strategies and freer investment opportunities.The purpose of this paper is to identify how the selected hedge fund strategies have performed during the recent economic downturn. We also want to clarify the claim that hedge funds exhibit a positive absolute return regardless of what the market is performing.In order to answer the purpose of the essay and its problems, we have used a quantitative method with a deductive approach in the processing of data.

Renal dysplasia is a developmental anomaly of the kidneys which is considered to be the primary lesion in juvenile progressive nephropathy, a condition leading to chronic renal failure in young dogs. It is defined as disorganised development of the renal parenchyma due to abnormal differentiation, and pathological lesions include persistent foetal structures, dysplastic tubules and cartilaginous and osseus metaplasia. The aetiology of renal dysplasia in dogs is still unknown, but possible causes are infection with canine herpesvirus, teratogenic substances or intrauterine ureteral obstruction. In some breeds renal dysplasia is a familial or inherited disease. Clinical signs of chronic renal failure, such as polyuria, polydipsia, vomiting, weight loss, anorexia, lethargy and anemia, usually appear before the age of 2 years.

The aim of this thesis is to expand the understanding of 16th century Flemish art by approaching paintings by artists Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575), Joachim Beuckelaer (1533-1574) and Pieter Bruegel (c. 1525-1569) from a different perspective. This is done by extending the discourse of art history, into a discourse of literary history and primarily 16th century novels by authors such as François Rabelais and Miguel de Cervantes. The paintings are studied in relation to these 16th century novels, by comparison and as a testament of this specific time period. A widening contextualization is also constructed in which a connection to the expression of the carnivals ambivalent form, as well as the notion of lower classes is explored.