As stocks have become a more common way for people to save their money, the range of financial information has had a substantial increase. To understand the assumptions that stock valuation and analysis are built upon, it is important for the reader to have an understanding for the models that are used by banks and institutions when recommendations are published.The cash flow model, which is the most commonly used stock valuation tool, is based on CAPM. This model describes the relationship between an assets return and its risk in relation to an index. The risk parameter is called the beta value and has grown to be the dominating risk factor within financial economics literature.The use of beta values has been widely discussed in the world of academics and some researchers claim that the degree of explanation brought about by the beta is so low that it should be discarded, others are faithful to the beta and believe that it still serves a purpose. As a result of this criticism other ways to calculate the beta have surfaced, models that take other factors of risk into consideration.

The interest for alternative forest regeneration methods increased significantly during the 1990´s after 50 years dominance of the clear-cutting system (Holgén & Hånell 2000). One reason for this was that clear-cutting was being more and more questioned by different envi-ronmental organizations and because the forest sector for economical reasons wanted to find cheaper ways to regenerate forests. In the beginning of the 1990´s two shelterwood experi-ments were established in a joint effort by Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) and the Dept of Silviculture, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). The experiments include various forms of cutting and shelterwood densities and represent productive spruce forests in central and north Sweden (Roggsjön in the province of Medelpad and Skikkis-jöberg in the province of Västerbotten, respectively ). The experiment next to Roggsjön has been reported earlier in three MSc theses, and is also the focus of this thesis.

This essay presents an examination of some aspects of an anonymous Italian fifteenth centurypainting, the Madonna in Adoration of the Christ Child with the Young John the Baptist, in theGothenborg Art Museum. My first aim is to understand its symbolic and religious content, and theother is to make an attempt at an attribution, or at least put the work in a likely environment,temporally and geographically. To the first end I analyse the image using Panofsky?s three stagemethod, and then make an iterpretation using the ?period eye? concept of Baxandall, especially froma religious viewpoit. Secondly, I try to define the style of the work mainly by analysing selectedparameters from a large number of fifteenth century Italian pictures found in the photo archive ofthe Federico Zeri Foundation website on the internet.

Detta arbete är utfört på uppdrag av Komatsu Forest i Umeå. Ett eventuellt problem som uppmärksammats vid företagets kvalitetsavdelning sedan länge är kiselhalten som syns i resultaten från skogsmaskinernas hydrauloljeanalyser. För att få en fördjupad kunskap om föroreningar i hydraulolja och bättre kunna utnyttja data från oljeanalyser, har underlag tagits fram för att bättre kunna avgöra om kiselhalt i hydraulolja är skadlig. Två målfrågor är: Vilket förhållande har kisel med andra tillgängliga faktorer som drifttid, grundämnen, syratal, vattenhalt och viskositet? Är kisel en tydlig indikator på inträngning av föroreningar från yttre miljö? Då hydrauloljans sammansättning förnyades har arbetets underlag fokuserats på analyser på den nya oljan.

Holmen Skog AB is an important supplier of conifer pulpwood to the Iggesund Paperboard mill. After logging and transport to the landing by a forwarder, the wood is loaded on trucks for further transport, often by using separate loaders. During this handling process considerable amounts of stone material is sometimes mixed into the pulpwood and this causes problems for the industry. The aim of this study is to identify which part of the chain from forest to pulpmill, that contributes the most to this contamination. Sizes and total volumes of the contaminating stones were also investigated.

The purpose of my study is to explore which possibilities there are for movement activities and how to use those possibilities. From this study, I will help the pedagogues recognize how to work more or different with movement activities.I have used participant observations and interviews as methods for my study. I did this at one preschool, because it is a development-study. The observations lasted for two weeks and the interviews were made with the majority of the pedagogues at the preschool.  The results of my study showed that the preschool teachers think that movement activities are an important part of children?s lives.

The study is made on behalf of SCA Skog Jämtlands förvaltning which is one of five administration units that SCA Skog consists of. The purpose of the study is to investigate which reduced expenses there are according to spatial concentration of cutting areas. By increasing the spatial concentration of cutting areas it will reduce the need of movements by trailer, also reduce the number of roads that you use during the activities. To be able to perform the study, access to a annual cuttings in nine years have been made available. From this volume new annual cuttings has been created but more concentrated. The two different results have been compared and the results show that concentration of cutting areas generates reduced need for trailer transports and less km road that has to be maintained. But then, if it´s practical viable can be discussed.

A debate in finance is whether a random investment gives the same return as carefully choose and valuing an amount of shares to invest in. Stock valuating Stock valuation is often done by fundamental valuation models, based on the company's underlying character, which tries to put a correct price on the stock. Today there are several different valuation models that can be used for this purpose. Since valuation models are only mathematical, equity research is underpinned by more subjective assessments about the company and its future.The purpose with this thesis is to describe which valuation models that are used by professional stock analysts, but also to see if the reliability on the equity research is affected by the used model to valuing the company. Furthermore, we want to see if the job that?s been done to understand the company, measured by the equity research quality, impact the reliability on the equity research.In this thesis, we have, to achieve our purpose, conducted a quantitative content analysis of 164 equity research done by professional analysts at firms listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. With basis in previous research, we have developed a method for determining the valuation model that is used in the equity research, the reliability on the equity research and a framework for assessing the quality of the equity research.In the theoretical framework the valuation models involved in our study are described, previous research on the reliability on the equity research and their practical use.

The Scanian woodfences has been determined by two mainly elements: Scania's composition of tree species, with a large element of deciduous forest, and the local building tradition which has more in common with the European continent than the Swedish tradition. By examining responses from ethnological question lists deriving from the first half of the 1900s, combined with literature studies, I have been able to deepen and broaden the knowledge behind the various fencing design. In addition I ?ve constructed maps which could illustrate their historical geographic distribution.I have come to the conclusion that there was three main types of woodfences that was most common until the barbed wire was introduced in the early 1900s and later on replaced the elderly woodfences. Common for the three main types is that the base material was made out of Juniperus communis, this largely because of its durability against rot.

The purpose of this study is to explore and understand the social and structural dynamics of an organization working with questions regarding development. The organization in question is Vi-agroforestry, a Swedish based NGO that works around the lake Victoria basin and the focus will be on their office in Rwanda. I have used a qualitative approach and conducted participatory observation as well as semi-structured interviews to gather data. I have emanated from the individuals in the organization by using a theory of microsociological organisationperspecive to understand how the employees create and is created by the existing social structures. (Blomberg, 2003) Even though the office in Rwanda only is a relatively small part of Vi-agroforestry?s operations it is still highly individual and independent from the rest of the organization.

Reporting harvested and forwarded volumes are important for the forest industry as it provides information of the size of the stock and facilitates logistics. Figures from Holmen Skog show low reporting frequency. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reason and find suggestions for improvement. A total of 17 machine operators were interviewed using a questionnaire combined with open questions. The results show that the majority of the machine operators find it simple to use the reporting system, although, some of them reports that it doesn?t always work as supposed to.

This is a paper about the effects from smoldering fire on lithic objects from an archaeological view. The introduction gives the background to this paper, a short orientation to forest wildfires and why the work is limited to: flint, quartz, quartzite and slate. Material and methods describes the stone materials and the setup that was used in the temperature logged tests with three replications for each type of material. The fuel in the burnings was peat on a bottom of sand. Flint showed a more drastic effect from heat compared with the other materials. Slate seems to have greater tendencies to change to darker colour and luster at lower temperatures than the other materials.

The background for my thesis is the fact that with rising electricity and oil prices it becomes interesting to calculate on alternative heating systems. I have chosen to calculate upon my parents? farm, which today heats the dwelling house with wood. This is very time-consuming work, time which could be spent on other work. The main objective for this study is to compare three different heating systems to decide how they differ considering effort and cost. The result from the calculations was that grain-heating system demanded the least amount of work, but the total cost was a little higher compared to chips heating. Chips heating required half as much work as today?s wood heating and had a little lower total costs compared with the corn heating. Which system to choose largely depends on how the own work is valued.

The purpose of this investigation is mainly to study if pupils have enough knowledge concerning the water cycle and the life of the plants?, and what kinds of household word they have, to discuss pollution within these areas. I also studied how the pupils? knowledge are holding up against what the course-plans says, since it have come to light by other investigations that knowledge are insufficient within the nature-oriented (No) subject in school.The survey has carried out on 28 pupils in a 5th grade, with help of a questionnaire survey. Their teacher has been interviewed and I have studied their local course-plans and also the pupils? schoolbooks in No.The result of the questionnaire survey indicates that the pupils had insufficient knowledge within the areas of plants? life and pollution, something their teacher had a presentiment about.The conclusion is that they need to go out more often in the nature and see how the plants and the environment are affected by different factors.

Orsa Besparingsskog has an aim to take nature considerations in relation to the harvested volume and area of the annual felling. Around 15 percent of the acreage and 10 percent of the volume should be set aside. It is important to keep close to those figures to avoid future negative effects on the long-term harvesting planning. The purpose of this study was to use laser scanning data to estimate those proportions. The result showed that the proportion of conservation considerations in the ten selected objects in the study was significantly higher than the target of 15 percent of the acreage and 10 percent of the volume. The result showed a setting aside of 19 percent of the acreage and 17 percent of the volume.