The Nasometer is a non-invasive acoustic measuring instrument that quantifies the ratio ofnasal resonance in speech. It can be used as a complement to perceptual judgment of speech impediments, for example, in patients with cleft palate and velopharyngeal insufficiency. Inorder to determine if a nasalance score is abnormal, it must be compared to norm data. The main purpose of the study was to collect reference nasalance scores in children between fourand five years of age in Linköping. An additional objective was to compare the results tonorm data collected in Umeå.

 AbstractBackground: Among elderly people with dementia pain is a common problem. In older persons, particularly those suffering from dementia and cognitive impairment pain is often underdiagnosed and undertreated causing unnecessary pain, suffering and affect quality of life negatively. Dementia complicates the identification of pain when the natural ability to communicate decreases when a person is suffering from dementia. It is important that health professionals working with older persons with dementia are aware of the person?s pain expression.Aim: To clarify how older persons with dementia communicate pain expression.Method: To study this area a literature review was used.

This report was written as a final thesis within the Department of forest economics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences as a completion of the M.SC Forestry programme. The aim of this study was to create a model that, with respect to given stock levels, temperature, fuel usage and fuel price, would identify the optimal levels for purchase of bio fuels, optimal levels of incineration of bio fuels and the sum of the present values of all costs. The model would be applicable for a larger district heating plant. Data regarding temperature were received from SMHI. Information considering fuel prices was taken from the Swedish Forest Agency and the facts about fuel usage were collected from a large district heating plant, located in the southwest of Sweden. For the temperature, a sinus curve was adapted to describe the temperature over a year.

Summary Today energy prices are rising. As a result biomass fuel is getting more and more interesting. Wood chips is very popular, but also straw from grain production is on the table. Lunds Energi AB project a combined power and heating plant in Örtofta out of Lund. Wood chips is meant to be the main energy source, complemented by straw. In this thesis the transportation of straw for fuel is studied.

The purpose of this examination work was to make a general description about drying and storage of grain, and a case study with a comparison between brought and home-made feed. The case study was made on the farm Solhem in Hörby, a farm that produces 3870 pigs for slaughter a year. In this project three alternatives have been compared, 1st alternative: own produced grain approx. 400 ton + wet grain 415 ton purchased during fall, 2nd alternative: own produced grain approx. 400 ton + dry grain 415 ton purchased during winter, 3rd alternative: bought feed 815 ton purchased continuously during the year. Considering the price information provided to me the 1st alternative gave the cheapest feed..

This Masters thesis work describes a comparison between two different methods for estimation of the down channel (base station to mobile subscriber) in Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA). The first estimation method, Optimal Feed-forward Channel Estimation (OFCE), is a conventional method that bases the estimates on data that is known to both sender and receiver, so called pilots. The second method, Decision Directed Channel Estimation (DDCE), is an elaboration of OFCE. It also uses user data for estimation. Simulations show that DDCE, in comparison to OFCE, does not attain an improvement in signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) for high bit error rates (BER).

Female growth, number of eggs and egg growth of Daphnia pulex were studied at four temperatures, 12, 16, 18 and 20°C. I hypothesized that female growth and number of eggs would be lower and the size of the eggs larger in the presence of a predator (kairomones) than in its absence. This effect was expected to be more evident at lower temperatures. I could not find any effect of kairomones on female growth, number of eggs or egg size, although there was a weak tendency for an effect on number of eggs. There was, however, an effect of temperature, regardless of predator treatment (i.

The purpose with this work is to investigate the cost to produce piglet in a case study company. The starting point is going to be the agriwise (www.agriwise.org) calculation which I am going to change and adapt to the case study company. To day the pig market is bad but we have probably reached the bottom. The market has started to rise. It is no business to produce piglets today.

The Swedish cooperative Lantmännen Ekonomiska Förening has initiated a project labelled "Operation Blåljus" that includes an extensive program for closing down elevators. The number of elevators will be reduced from 92 to approximately 15 after harvest of 2007. The objective of Blåljus is to increase the price of grain with 10 öre/kg. A project has been initiated at the Lantmännen Grain division where the purpose is to provide the farmers with support in their decisions and practical advice how they can load a 35 ton grain truck on 30 minutes. The result from the project will serve as a support system to the farmer in his ambition to achieve cost efficient systems to load a truck with grain on the farm.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether hedge funds generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds in Sweden.Methodology: This study was based on quantitative data about the funds historical returns. The funds historical returns were taken from the database Morningstar and the risk-free rate from the Swedish central bank. Random samples of 36 funds have been divided into three portfolios in the form of a hedge fund portfolio, stock portfolio and mix fund portfolio.Result & Conclusion: The study concluded that the stock portfolio has shown the highest average yield for the study period where all portfolios below market index. Hedge fund portfolio has achieved the highest risk-adjusted return calculated by the portfolios Sharpe Ratio. Of all hedge strategies, arbitrage had the highest average return and risk-adjusted returns..

Introduction: This thesis is about how the accounting entry provisions are linked to corporate market value. By statistically examining accounting and share data for 56 companies listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm, the question of whether accounting information regarding provisions are value relevant for investors is studied. Listed companies shall follow the rules of IAS 37 ? Provisions, Contingent liabilities and Contingent assets, when preparing financial statements.Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between reported information about provisions and investors assessment of listed companies that comply with IFRS-regulations, by statistically testing the value relevance of the accounting entry.Method: The study is based on a quantitative, deductive methodological approach. The value relevance of provisions is examined by statistically testing the collected empirical data based on the two models that is described in the reference frame.Results: The conclusion to be drawn from the study is that reported provisions have no statistically significant association with return on shares and thus is not value relevant.

This report concentrates on why more people do not choose an environmentally friendly car instead of a conventional car. To find this answer we have used theories that include decision - behavior and environment - philosophy. We have also made four surveys, which includes several interviews. The results of these interviews, together with the secondary data we have found, have been analyzed against the theories made by our choice. We have found that the stimulus that we have today isn?t enough to make more people choose an environmentally friendly car instead of a conventional car.

The purpose of the thesis is to demonstrate how high frequency trading affects the stock market. The growing high frequency trading is affecting the game plan on the financial markets and concerns have grown about the high frequency users intentions with their business. It is difficult to receive an overall picture of the subject because the lack of previous research and even the research that exist do not show the entire picture. The thesis contributes to the research through a comprehensive picture of the present debate as well as the previous research through a literature study. Our results showed that high frequency trading provides liquidity to the market, there is a statistical connection between high frequency trading and volatility, no price manipulation is being used and there is a need for a supervision of the high frequency trading..

It is important to understand the process of appraisal of a business in order to establish its value. The purpose of our thesis is to establish which methods and models are used when evaluating a business and investigate the factors that may affect the value and price tag of a business. We have used a qualitative approach by conducting both indepth interviews and a survey as well as reading literature within the field. The main conslusion in our findings is that the common practice of discounted cash flow is widely used when bestowing a monetary value for a business, and in order to raise the value a well established customer relationship was the single most important factor. As far as lowering the value, the answers were of such a wide spread that a single factor could not be attributed.

The intrest and development of bioenergy and energy from renewable sources in Sweden has increased rapidly over the last few years. There are a whole lot of alternatives for those who would like to venture and invest in renewable energy production. Production of renewable energy opens up many opportunities for forestry and farming to venture a new branch of production, on basis of the primary production. Several of the new energy sources grows on farmland or in the forest. The opportunities exist in the primary products, as well as in refining and reselling, in the value chain of energy. The starting-point is the Farmer as an energyproducer. This master thesis studies the nature of farmer-own firms, who has invested in production of renewable energy.