Abstract: Private equity used to be synonymous with tremendous yields and rates of return. However, the private equity market trembled in 2008, due to the financial meltdown caused by the worldwide credit crisis. Considering the current low number of exits within the private equity industry, the purpose of this thesis is to examine if there has been any change in how private equity firms control their portfolio companies since the inception of the crisis. One private equity company and two portfolio companies have been studied. The case study is prepared from interviews with senior directors in the portfolio company and investment managers in the private equity firm.

The society is developing fast and the development is constantly on-going, new technology results in new opportunities and new problems for both companies and consumers. The use of Internet has heavily increased around the world; this means that the companies can use Internet as a channel of communication to reach the consumers. The most recent type of marketing is web marketing. The fact that web marketing is constantly changing raise the question of how effective different types of web marketing are.The purpose of this study is to investigate four selected types of web marketing. This is achieved by comparing the response from the consumers and the cost for the different types of web marketing.

Today wireless transmission of data is becoming more and more popular and the need for faster transmission rates is increasing. Since the bandwidth is limited it is important to try to use it to the fullest. CDMA is a technology that allows multiple accesses on the same frequency and time thus making it very bandwidth efficient. The CDMA technology was first introduced in the second generation?s cellular systems but has since then been improved and is reused in today?s 3G systems as Wideband CDMA.

The purpose of this thesis was to illustrate the use of internal marketing in the hotel industry. It was decided to conduct a case study on two hotels in the same region, Quality Hotell Statt and Pite Havsbad. The case study is based on personal interviews with the managers of each hotel, who have the ultimate responsibility of the internal marketing work. The research questions were based on why the hotel industry work with internal marketing and how the hotel industry work with internal marketing. The study showed that the hotel industry work with internal marketing on daily basis to get low employee turnover rates, increased employee job satisfaction and high quality services.

The purpose of this study is to determine if and how male or female everyday languagesdiffer. The study is based on ten interviews with five men and five women living inHalmstad, who are between the ages of 22-29. The interview results were analyzed andcompared with previous research on the subject. The result shows that there is adifference between the male and female informants use of language. Women laughing,using italics, hedges, the word så ?so? and response signals to a greater degree than men.The reason may be that men and women basically use different conversation styleswhen they communicate, that men prefer a public speech, intended to provideinformation and knowledge.

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).

The codling moth, Cydia pomonella is a common pest in apple orchards and can be found worldwide. Feeding by codling moth larvae can cause a substantial decrease in apple yield. Control methods comprise for example the use of pesticides, viruses and pheromones. As a sustainable control method, pheromones have been successfully applied to disrupt moth mating behaviour. Other behaviours like foraging, search for mating sites or host finding could be potential targets for additional odour-mediated behavioural manipulation but need further investigations of the underlying odour stimuli and behavioural plasticity. Many insects are attracted to the smell of fermenting fruit and associated microorganisms.

The report is a comparative study between spruce plantations where 4 plants are treated with deer repellents and 4 plantations are untreated. The study aims to provide a base for the Forest Society's future decisions regarding the use of wildlife-repellents.  The report indicates that wildlife-repellents work reasonably well for its purpose, the treated stocks were virtually untouched during the planting year and next year while the untreated stocks have been heavily grazed during these years.  Growth difference between grazed plants and ungrazed plants found to be virtually non-existent (0, 01 m) of the treated stocks and 0, 07 m in the untreated plants. Because of the growth differences are so small between grazed and no grazed plants, it seems like the treatment of deer-repellent are unnecessary. Unless you know in particularly that the area has a specific problem whit severe deer-grazing..

ABSTRACTToday's modern technological society is constantly evolving and house planning is one area that is constantly creating new technical solutions. By looking back at selected architectural eras during the 1900?s, the idea is to study and analyse three building structures in Gothenburg with a focus on quality and content in the urban space.In order to provide a background for the three selected areas, their history has been studied. The main question for the research is: how do different building structures affect the content and qualities in the urban space?The areas have been selected to represent three typical epochs in Swedish building history.

This study attempts to examine the existence and development of price differences in the car sector in Europe. The time period is between 1995, the year of the Swedish entrance in the European Union, and 2003. The study is based on data supplied by the European commission, on a bi-annual basis. Both price differences in general in the EU, and price differences between Sweden and other countries in the EU are examined. The theoretical law of one price is related to the economic integration of the EU and the car sector.

Problem formulation: What factors influence the customer?s choice of bank? How is the customer loyalty towards the customer?s current bank?Purpose: The main purpose is to see what factors are definitive to the customer?s choice of bank and how strong the customer loyalty is towards the bank. It is also interesting to see whether customers who are satisfied with their current bank may still consider switching to something else.Method: The method is both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection, with main focus on a quantitative survey. The qualitative part consists of interviews with a smaller focus group to receive a deeper insight of the consumer?s thoughts regarding the main purpose and problem formulations.Conclusion: The main factor when choosing a bank is recommendations from family or friends.

The main focus of this essay is to analyze whether strict employment protection legislation has a negative effect on the labour market possibilities for youth in the EU or not. To empirically examine the labour market possibilities for youth, data for unemployment rates and incidence of temporary jobs are used. By doing simple correlations between the different labour market characteristics and OECD?s employment protection legislation index the effect of the latter is tested. The result is that a tendency for youth unemployment and frequency of youth with temporary employment to be higher when employment protection legislation is strict can be seen.

This report aims to study the condominium prices in central Stockholm and the factors thataffect these prices. A linear regression model was set up and data about relevant covariatessuch as floor area, mortgage rates and where the condominium is situated were gathered toassess if and how they influence the price. The raw data was processed and enhanced to gain asmuch relevant information as possible to the model. To determine the covariates? influence onthe final price, regressions were ran and various tests were performed on the output data.

This student report is about canine atopic dermatitis It includes a description of the immunologic mechanisms and how the reaction affects the body. The symptoms are various, most common is pruritus, erythema and alopecia and directly associated with the immunologic reaction. The diagnostic process includes symptoms, physical findings, differential diagnosis, intradermal test and serological test. The options of treatment are several and vary for each patient. The report includes hyposensitization, medical treatment such as corticosteroids, antihistamin and cyclosporine, topical treatment, fatty acid supplements and environmental treatment. The prognosis is individual for each patient due to their different response to the treatment. It may take a while to find the right combination of treatments to achieve satisfactory control of the disease..

This report is produced with Nätraälven forest owner association. This forest owner association has been going through some changes the last years and therefore wanted to investigate what the members thought about the development. The main purpose of the study was to gain knowledge about the attitude of the members. The study was made with a questionnaire that was purposed to investigate the member?s opinion on their own cultivation and the view on Nätraälven as an organization. The questionnaire was sent to 110 members.