The aim of this small thesis is to investigate if the probability of business failure is higher at the time of divestment than at the time of acquisition for portfolio companies that have been subject to private equity ownership. The background for this thesis is the widespread critique aimed at private equity firms, claiming that they increase the risk in their portfolio companies. We have performed a study of 53 buyout transactions, involving Swedish manufacturing companies, covering a time span of 13 years, from 1995 to 2007. We find evidence of an increased risk of business failure for the portfolio companies with a short forecasting horizon (within one year). The absolute increase in the sample is however small.

The thesis had its starting point in the first paragraph of the eleventh chapter in the Swedish social services act, which discusses the immediate risk assessments that has to be made when the social services receive a report about a child. The thesis highlights an area that has received a lot of attention in media since the spring of 2014, when an eight year old girl was fatally abused by her legal guardians. The social services had at the time received a report about the girl but it was left unread. This tragic case has brought attention to the routines used by the social services for dealing with reports and risk assessments. This thesis was conducted through individual interviews with social workers working with children and families in the social services, with the aim to acquire an enhanced understanding of how social workers perform immediate risk assessments and what these assessments are based on.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the status of Swedish real estate companies in terms of financial health and risk of financial distress. The background is the ongoing financial crisis, which partly can be derived from the American real estate sector. Publicly available accounting information from 16 listed real estate companies has been analyzed for a period of one year using financial ratios covering both the operational and financial activities. We find that the deceleration in the economy and in the real estate sector have forced the real estate companies to make large write downs, in line with the relatively new accounting rules, IFRS. Write downs are likely to reoccur during the following periods and real estate companies will therefore probably be forced to continue to show negative results.

This thesis presents and evaluates a project, undertaken in 2001 by a librarian the writer of this thesis and a teacher. We met with a number of adults with reading and writing disabilities, and presented and discussed books and experiences of reading, with the aim to increase their joy of reading, as well as finding out more about our own ways of co-operating with each other across our professional borders. The documentation and evaluation emphasizes on the process and the results of the project, and on our own participation, by asking the following questions: How did we carry out the project? What obstacles did we meet? What went well/wrong? What did we achieve related to our goals? In order to illuminate the project from different angles, consequences of reading and writing disabilities for adults are discussed, as well as the specific nature of adult education and projects more or less related to ours. Action research is chosen as a method, because it allows the process of the project, and our own learning process, to be exposed.

In this report a systematic working procedure for risk classification of processing equipment from a maintenance point of view is described. How this system has been worked out is also an important part of the report. The classification system is adapted for use in complex processing plants. Preemraff Göteborg has been subject for the underlying study and application of the system.The system aims to give a good overview of the maintenance related risks at the plant. Furthermore, the analysis result is a good motivation for the suggested maintenance activities and as motivation for extended or decreased maintenance resources in total.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how young adults withunilateral cleft lip and palate assess their own speech and communication,and to let speech and language pathologists make a perceptual analysis ofthese individuals? speech at the age of 19 years. An additional aim was toexamine the relationship between these two different ways of evaluation.Data was collected through perceptual analysis from audio recordings and byusing a self-report questionnaire based on the ICF-structure (InternationalClassification of Function, disability and health). Altogether, 33 peopleparticipated. One third of the participants had no speech deficiencies.

Analys av portföljer, sammansatta av hög-, mellan- och lågrisk aktier..

This thesis was performed as assignment from Fazer Food Services. The aim was to survey which food additives that were present in the products in the quotation list of one of their suppliers to the Education and Nursing segment. The aim also was to perform a theoretical analysis of these food additives and to make recommendations which food additives are acceptable and which should be excluded from the products in the future. The recommendations are not published in this report, for more information Fazer Food Services can be contacted. Food additives which have already been approved are regarded as safe according to the safety evaluation methods available at the time of approval.

This study aims to scrutinize the four major banks in Sweden on how their profit havedeveloped over a time span of 15 years, whether stricter regulations have had anyimpact on financial key ratios and if there is any correlation between the banksprofitability and their risk taking. The period covered is the years 2000-2014. Thefigures are annually and the four major banks are; Handelsbanken, Nordea,Skandiviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) and Swedbank.The findings are that financial key ratios that include net income are pro-cycle whereSwedbank has the biggest volatility over the period and that the three other banks areless, but clear pro-cycle. There are also indications that stricter rules have madeimpact on the volatility of the profitability even though the period covered is notenough to ensure this claim. Nordea has had the lowest and most stable capital ratiothroughout the period and the other three banks lowered their debt-to-equity ratiosignificantly after the financial crisis in 2008.

The research objective of this thesis was to conduct a holistic evaluation of an operational information system. By holistic evaluation we mean that an equal focus was placed on both the system system perspective and its users user perspective, in the actual environment where the system and its users function contextuality. In addition, the methodological objective of the study was to test a new research approach in a real life setting. The participants of the study were twenty newspaper journalists employed at Göteborgs-Posten GP. The information system NewsLink is a manually indexed full-text database containing all articles published in GP since 1994.

To invest money in funds is increasing rapidly in popularity and one of the biggest reasons is that banks are offering a greater range of funds. Information about funds is always easy to find and it is easy to invest money in a fund because the bank takes care of all the management of the fund.The essay examines two funds from two different countries with an aim to choose the one with best potential yield. The first fund is entirely invested in North America and the second fund invests in Asia, with most of its possessions in companies from China. Both these funds invest in wellknown companies in respective region. The essay is limited to compare these funds with data from 2005 to 2009.Information was collected from Morningstar and Avanza Bank for the quantitative examination.

A stay in the neonatal intensive care unit of greater than 5 days is one of the identified risks ofa sensorineural hearing loss. Preterm infants usually have at least one risk factor for hearingimpairment. The period from 25 weeks' gestation to 5 to 6 months of age is most critical tothe development of the auditory system. We think it is important to investigate hearingimpariment among infants born preterm, degree and type of hearing loss, risk factorsassociated with hearing loss and how the auditory system may be affected by preterm birth.ObjectiveA critical review of the current literature including studies of preterm infants born betweengestonal age 25-37. Our aim is to identify the most common type and degree of hearing lossamong infants born preterm and if there is an association between hearing loss and pretermbirth.MethodA literature search of Scopus and Pubmed resulted in 16 articles from 2000-2015ResultsMost of the infants in this study had a severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss.

The study examines risk perception and crisis preparedness among personnel at high-schools. The focus is set on teachers and leaders at four high-schools in Örebro municipality, Sweden. The purpose of the study is to examine crisis preparedness and identify factors which influences risk perception and crisis preparedness. The survey consisted of a questionnaire which was completed by 95 respondents. The results show that better information about the crisis preparedness in the schools is needed.

Genom kvantitativ såväl som kvalitativ metodteori utvärdera om ett belöningssystem fungerar som ett styrinstrument..

ABSTRACTBackground Calprotectin is a protein found in the cytoplasm of neutrophile granulocytes. In the course of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), calprotectin is released during chronic inflammation in the gut. Activation of neutrophils during the inflammation is followed by activation and secretion of pro-inflammatory molecules such as calprotectin. Calprotectin is stable in stool up to 7 days and can therefore be used as a non-invasive marker for diagnosis, treatment and measurement of the disease activity in patients with IBD. The most common method for analysis of calprotectin concentration is ELISA.