Several studies have investigated the relationship between different measures of innovative activity, such as patent statistics and R&D expenditures and some have looked deeper into the differences between large and small firms regarding number of patents issued per employee or per R&D dollar. In this paper, the objective is to find out if there are any indications of a barrier to entry (due to economical factors, lack of knowledge etc) for small firms to get into the field of patent handling. The approach is to first set up a hypothesis based on some simple assumptions about how firms would make decisions about whether to apply for a patent or not and thereafter use econometric methods in an empirical investigation. The data used for this study are figures on number of employees, number of patents granted and R&D expenditures for the Swedish firms in the pulp and paper industry. The main conclusion is that, based on the analysis of the data from this rather limited group of firms, no such barrier can be seen..

Denna kandidatuppsats syftar till att utvärdera en i sammanhanget ny modell för värdering av optioner. Modellen går under namnet SABR och har enligt flera bedömare tagit en position som branschstandard inom vissa områden. Flera forskningsrapporter har presenterats i vilka modellen analyseras matematiskt och tillämpas på specifika marknader. I denna uppsats används data från Chicago Board of Exchange, mer specifikt optionen på S&P 500 index. Tillämpningen grundas på en kalibrering (regression) av vissa parametrar.

Communication is a part of everyday life. The more sensitive information we handle, the more interesting the question around security of your information becomes. There are two ways of handling security around the information you want to communicate, either you control the means by which you are communicating. Or you control the way you communicate, making you able to use existing communication channels. Existing methods within cryptography enables two parties to communicate information securely.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur Rydaholmsmetoden kan fungera för elever i lässvårigheter på högstadiet. Syftet var också att undersöka hur eleverna uppfattade arbetet med metoden. Som utgångspunkt valdes en kvantitativ ansats i form av en interventionsstudie med 15 elever i årskurs 7. Även en kvalitativ ansats i form av samtal användes för att ta reda på hur eleverna uppfattat arbetet.Resultatet av undersökningen visade att de flesta elever ökade testresultaten vad gäller avkodning. Interventionen genomfördes under fem veckor med för- och eftertest, vilket kan ha bidragit till viss inlärningseffekt av testresultaten.

In this essay I reflect on what makes a good preschool teacher today. I discuss the importance of education, the importance of experience and practical knowledge, but also the importance of capacity for self-reflection and listening. I bring up examples from my workplace, where some think more about their limitations than on what and how much they actually can. Others are more satisfied by what they can and see less of their limits. Some are also lack of the will to see differently and to do changes.

Can you ensure that your smoke detector will sense fire and sound the alarm in the middle of the night?In 80 percent of the cases where emergency pulls out, smoke detectors are missing where the fire occurred. In the year of 2009, 118 people in Sweden died in fires ? most of them would have survived if there had been a functioning smoke detector.Earlier development of smoke detectors has mainly been focusing on components that sense smoke and alert in case of fire. But in most cases the problem has not been whether the smoke detector was working or not as fully assembled, but rather that it was missing.

The present essay concerns Walter Benjamin?s thought regarding history and temporality as he articulated it in his last work that was only published posthumously: ?U?ber den Begriff der Geschichte?. The purpose is to analyze Benjamin?s construction of historical materialism and to suggest a reading of it as directed towards an opening of history. For Walter Benjamin, every moment presents itself as a possibility of radical otherness: a possibility for things to be different.

The thesis handles the principal-agency problem between shareholders and the Chief Executive Officer. The purpose of the thesis was to examine the link between CEO compensation and corporate performance measured as a change in Market to Book ratio. Data was collected from corporate annual reports between the years 2000 ? 2008 and the study covers 39 Swedish companies from the Stockholm Stock Exchange Large Cap list. To examine whether there is a link between the CEO´s compensation and firm performance, we performed a regression analysis, and no significant relation is found.

A company may use different accounting techniques to adjust accounting information and thereby attract investors. Big Bath Accounting is defined as a strategy used to make changes in the financial statements and reduce the results further when the companies expect negative results. This phenomenon has been observed empirically and occurs when including CEO change and negative results. The aim of this study is to test whether there is another factor affecting Big Bath Accounting, namely remuneration of the CEO. The CEOs should, by changing the accounting information, be able to influence their compensation.

The division of Electricity at Uppsala University is developing a wave energy converter(WEC) consisting of a linear generator connected to a bouy at the water surfacethrough a wire cable called the connection line.During extreme conditions, the wave power plant will experience forces up to 500kN, which lead to unnecessary wear and will ultimately cause the failure of theconverter. To prevent this there is a need for a damper.The wave energy converter works at a maximum efficiency when the translator?sare centered with respect to the stator. Due to tidal movements the position of thetranslator can deviate. There for a mechanical divice that will compensate for this isneeded.This report describes the further development of an earlier project where a tidalwave compensator for a wave energy converter of Seabased AB was developed.

The purpose of this work is to design and construct a device able to measure the mechanical attrition of oxygen carrier particles. Those particles are used in chemical looping combustion and in the present situation there is a lack of knowledge in how the attrition process work and in which extension. To find already tested solutions trying to answering this problem a literature study wascarried out and the best solution found was the so called Grace-Davison Jet-Cup method. This method is supposed to emulate the attrition caused by a cyclone separator and its advantages are that it is possible to use small test amounts, 5-10 g, and a thirty minutes long test will be enough to acquire useable results. An device was designed based on the Jet-Cup method with some slight modifications.

The purpose of this study was to find out what the educators view on the working method Matte på burk in preschool looked like. I also wanted to find out what the educators thought about the working method. My questions are:How does the educators in preschool experience the method Matte på burk?What do the educators in preschool believe that Matte på burk can give the children?The study was carried out through a qualitative interview study with six educators. During the interviews with the educators it became apparent that the method not only focused on mathematical exercises.

Decision-making and valuation when buying small caps is a poorly explored area. Likewise, since disputes about deficiencies in the company?s financial and legal standing are, almost without exception, resolved in arbitration with confidentiality requirements for both sides, there is very little empirical knowledge about such disputes. This paper hopes to add empiric experience by describing such a take-over ? the purchase of the Jon Blund companies.

This study examines whether the ownership structure of Swedish firms contributes to explain the variations in executive pay. A regression analysis was performed on 102 companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The analysis suggests a negative relationship between ownership structure and executive pay after taking company profitability and size into account. The result is in line with previous studies and the agency theory. This indicates that large shareholders have a stronger position in Swedish companies or that large shareholders monitor the management to a larger extent, rather than providing incentives.

This report is about intranets and SharePoint. It explains how user?s expectations can affect an implementation of an intranet and what companies want to get out of an intranet. It?s also about risks that may occur when an intranet is developed and how to avoid these problems.SharePoint is a collaborative platform and publishing system from Microsoft that assists developers in the implementation of an intranet.