The present study examines the effect of a nine-hour Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) intervention for teachers who experience stress. Twenty-two teachers from four different counties in southern Sweden were randomly allocated to an ACT intervention (n=15) and a control group (n=7). The ACT condition received three three-hour sessions of ACT over a six-week period, and the control group received a three-hour stress lecture at one occasion. At a follow-up four-weeks after completed intervention, ACT participants showed significant in-group differences on stress, psychological flexibility, general health, and burnout. At a between group comparison, only psychological flexibility was significantly enhanced at the follow-up.

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..

Over a long period of time, there has been a rich debate in the academic and financial world if active management can generate an excess return. Many experts say that the current active management strategies is nothing more than a money grab that produces large gains, for banks and investment firms, through high management fees while producing no excess value for the individuals buying their service. In short, an effective market makes it almost impossible for fund managers to produce value for their clients in the long run.No argument has only one side though, other experts say that active management has a role to play because not all investors are rational. This irrationality can lead to mispricing on financial assets in the marketplace and in turn lead to an ineffective market where active management can fill a much needed role. The purpose of this study is therefore to see if active management strategies can create a higher risk adjusted return, taking management fees into consideration, during times of high volatility when the uncertainty is at its peak.

With an increased demand for biomass based energy and with development of better technique harvest biomass, new possibilities open up. With the possibility to combine traditional cleaning of road?s right of way with biomass harvesting, the work of suppressing tree vegetation could become profitable or at least decrease the road maintenance cost. However, knowledge about productivity and profitability in mechanical biomass harvesting in roads? right of ways are still limited.

This master thesis was a subtask of a project called EMIR-1. The goal with the thesis was tobuild a system for particulate mass measurements in one of the engine test cells at KTH. Theparticulate mass measurements are planned to be measured with a TEOM.The exhaust gases must first be diluted with air before the sample is sent to the TEOM.Therefore an ejector diluter for this matter also was designed and evaluated in the thesis.Emissions measurements have been done both with and without dilution to determine thedilution ratio. Tests have been done for different speeds and loads.Problems with stability of the dilution ratio have been an issue throughout the process andpressure pulsations in the exhaust pipe are believed to be the cause. More tests have to be done tomake sure that this is the problem.One idea is to make the inner diameter of the diluter nozzle smaller and see if it changes thedilution ratio stability.

The classic view of trout (Salmo trutta) life history is that trout begins its life in freshwater, migrates to the ocean after about 1-4 years and then returns to freshwater to spawn. As trout fry have been caught at the mouth of the River Emån, near the Baltic Sea, researchers have speculated that some trout emigrate during their first year of life. The purpose of this study was to describe the variation in the length of time trout reside in freshwater before they migrate to the ocean for the first time. Another purpose was to investigate whether it was possible to discern where and how long the fish spent in freshwater and saltwater during different parts of their lives. Between 2007 and 2009, 23 adult trout were captured in the River Emån in southeastern Sweden.

Aim: A business ratio is a measuring instrument that companies use in their financial report to show profit and progress. As it is today, there are no standards to follow that shows which business ratio to present in a companies annual report. Our aim with this report is to see if there are any trends in the use of business ratios by looking into how thirty growth companies are applying them.Method: To see what business ratios are used in practice, we have collected information from the thirty companies? annual reports. With help from the literature, we have created an understanding about the most frequently used business ratios.

As the companies of today are good at protecting themselves against external threats, but are having problems with internal threats, we focused on how information can be protected from ending up in the wrong hands. First and foremost to protect information from employees who might steal it and sell it to another company. Since the security investments needed are connected to the financial costs of implementing them we have tried to create a balance between the investments needed and the cost of implementing them. The different kinds of protection needed are first and foremost protection to make data less accessable, passwords and traceability. While it is hard for us to estimate the amount of money a company lose by the hour when the production stands still, we have not been able to use any of the excising models to calculate the profit of installing countermeasures.

The bachelor's thesis is to examine the explanatory factors affecting the choice of capital structure in real estate companies. The analysis is based on data collected from the main financial reporting from 2007; all listed real estate companies listed on Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish stock market. Based on previous research and theories, we have defined five independent variables that are linked to the debt ratio, which are: profitability, growth, firm size, cost of debt and operational risk. The statistical tests have resulted in that we can say with certainty that profitable firms tend to have a lower debt to equity ratio. We can also say with certainty that property companies with high interest costs have a high level of indebtedness..

Environment friendly transports are one of the main topics in the industry and society today.Shell organizes an annual university competition called Shell Eco Marathon. The goal is to buildthe car that consumes the least fuel during a race. KTH participated for the first time in 2006.The engine for this competition, DoubleTwo, has been developed within the school. Theprinciple is a two stroke counter piston HCCI engine with variable compression ratio. HCCIstands for homogenous charge compression ignition.

Background: The international accounting standard regarding goodwill gives opportunities to several accounting procedure choices, as goodwill is a complex, intangible asset. The valuation of goodwill affects equity/asset ratio and income statement, which gives that the stakeholders? impression of the group?s financial statement is affected by the valuation of this asset. It has been pointed out that difficult economic times bring impairment loss to the fore. During financial crisis, equity/asset ratio may be significant as the economy of the groups is expected to be strained.Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to explain the appearance of the possible relationship between a group?s impairment loss for goodwill and their equity/asset ratio, during financial straits.

The purpose of this study is to investigate five teachers? opinions on the work with individualization with focus on above-average pupils. I have issued four questions based on the purpose of this study: - How do these teachers define the theoretical concepts of individualization and above-average pupils? - How do the teachers reason about the concept of individualization with focus on the above-average pupils? - How do the teachers reason regarding the work with individualization in the Swedish language? - Do these teachers consider that there are difficulties to individualize the work so that it will challenge above-average pupils?The method used to conduct this study was a semi-structured qualitative interview with five teachers in primary school. The theory and the theoretical concepts this study is based on is: what defines the above- average pupils, the zone of proximal development, the concept of individualization and motivation and the importance of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities.The study shows that the theoretical concept of above-average pupils is hard to define and it shows a difference between how the teachers choose to define it.

Abstract The internationalisation of a company is enabled by integration of markets. New markets mean new revenues, but also demand capital to finance the expansion. To bring in new capital may offer new possibilities but also higher debt-equity ratios, which affect how external interested parties value the company. This thesis, inspired by previous and mainly US based research, researches the debt-equity ratio of Swedish multinational and domestic companies, sampled from the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The research questions have focused on the impact of certain internationalisation variables on the debt-equity ratio; how does the debt-equity ratio differ between international and domestic companies? Can a difference be explained by the degree of internationalisation? Can a difference be better explained by the presence of international ownership? By measuring the concept internationalisation as both trade and presence, the questions were operationalised into four hypotheses.

Nikotin är världens tredje mest använda drog efter koffein och alkohol. Rökning utgör en av de absolut främsta orsakerna till en för tidig död i hela världen. Minst 10 000 svenskar dör varje år i förtid på grund av rökning. Syftet med denna studie var att jämföra skillnaden i lungfunktion, muskelstyrka och arbetsförmåga mellan rökare och icke-rökare. Till studien rekryterades totalt 20 frivilliga försökspersoner i åldrarna 27-56 år varav 10 var rökare och 10 icke-rökare.

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the validity and reliability of the 20m multistage shuttle run test (MST) for elite ice hockey players as a predictor of the maximal aerobic capacity and the how the result is affected by the players age, aerobic and anaerobic capacity, body composition and test surface. The purpose of this was to find out the potential of the 20-m shuttle run test as a measuringtool for the maximal aerobic capacity in frequent testing periods during the season. It is very interesting to be able to administer this easily because the competative phase of the season is very long compared to the pre-seasonal phase and earlier studies have shown that the aerobic capacity is being lowered during this competative phase of the season for elite icehockey players.Methods: 34 elite ice hockey players participated in this study (20.0±3.6 yrs, BMI 24.2±1.6 and VO2-max 58.0±4.8 ml O2?kg-1?min-1). During 3-5 days they underwent 2 MST tests (wood and rubber surface), treadmill running with VO2-max assessed with open-circuit technique, Wingate10% and FFM-assessment with underwater-technique.