In recent years, the Swedish railway track system has been neglected in terms of capacity and maintenance. To adapt the existing system to current traffic load there is a great need for extensive improvement and maintenance. Shortcomings are especially occurring on older embankments running over soft subgrades. To select the most suitable method for reinforcement of the embankment, it is important to evaluate different solutions from a life cycle cost perspective. In long-term perspective, it is often shown that a method with low investment cost causes a higher maintenance cost and a shorter technical lifetime.

Geothermal energy can be extracted from an aquifer, where the groundwater is used as heatexchange medium while heat and cold are stored in the surrounding material in the aquiferand to some extent in the groundwater. Application of aquifer storage for the use ofgeothermal energy is mainly used in large scale facilities and is limited to sites with suitableaquifers in the form of ridges, sandstone and limestone aquifers.Löwenströmska hospital in the municipality of Upplands Väsby, north of Stockholm, islocated nearby the northern part of the Stockholm esker. This means that it can be profitableand environmentally beneficial for the hospital to examine the possibilities of aquifer storagein the esker material next to its property.The purpose of this master thesis has been to investigate if geothermal energy storage with aseasonal storage of heat and cold can be applied within Löwenströmska hospital?s propertyarea using groundwater modeling. A hydraulic groundwater model was constructed inMODFLOW based on a simplified conceptual model of the groundwater system.

The business world of today is characterized by the fact that knowledge plays a far greater role than it did before in the companies? production. In many companies, the human resources constitute the main part of the total assets. It can for example be the employees? knowledge, competence or power of initiative.

The environment has become an important part in people´s lives, and in today´s society stakeholders demands have increased upon companies when it comes to sustainability reports. How these sustainability reports are designed depends on whom it?s for, laws and regulations, and the companies own norms and values. The purpose of sustainability reports is to measure, monitor and compare a company´s enviromental impact. It?s not only about integrating economics, but also enviromental and social standards together to get both financial and competitive advantages.Sustainable Value method is a new model and is the first real method that can be used to evaluate a company´s resources, both financial, social and enviromental to a sustainable value.This model is used to compare the resource efficiency between companies.In this thesis, a documentary study with an experimental approach has been made.Sustainability reports from six selected companies (in the engineering and forestry sector) have been investigated with respect to their accounting for carbon dioxide, and an experiment using the method ?Sustainable Value Approach? was subsequently performed.

Ett av EU:s främsta syfte är att skapa fri rörelse av kapital. Genom att kontinuerligt reducera handelshinder strävar de efter att skapa lika förutsättningar mellan medlemsstaterna. I och med den globalisering som skett och fortfarande sker blir det allt mer vanligt förekommande att svenska bolag konkurrerar och samverkar med andra europeiska bolag.Mycket har hänt på redovisnings- och revisionsområdet det senaste decenniet vilket har gjort att den svenska lagstiftningen delvis har skrivits om och anpassats efter EG:s direktiv. Internationella redovisningsstandarder har fått stort inflytande på framförallt de stora svenska bolagen. Dessa standarder var ursprungligen anpassade för börsnoterade bolag vilket har medfört att mindre svenska bolag under de senaste åren ålagts orimligt omfattande redovisningsskyldigheter.

Background: Inter-organisational ways of working have become more and more common during the last decades. In order to attain efficiency and productivity, such inter-organisational relationships need to be governed and controlled. However, studies have shown that inadequate control is one of the main reasons for why inter-organisational relationships fail. One of the means that can be used for governing and controlling a business is management control. The use of management control in inter-organisational contexts is a quite unexplored area of research at the present time, which might seem somewhat surprising considering the fact that inadequate control is a common explanation for why inter-organisational relationships fail.

Swedish accountants are, amongst other laws, controlled by a couple of so called duties. One of those is the professional secrecy, which guarantees the safety of company secrets and other important information that the accountant needs to know but shouldn?t tell anybody. Since 1999 Swedish accountants also need to follow the regulations of the reporting duty. In short, this means that in some cases of suspected crime within a company, auditors are obliged to report this to the authorities.

A high quality is highly requested in today?s thinnings, since these are the base for continued value development of the forests. Thinning quality often means a minimization of damages on soil, stems and roots during the cutting. One way to reach a high quality is to set up goals that will be followed up after the cutting is made. Self-checking gives information of the machine drivers work and guarantees the customers a good quality of work.

Bovine milk is an excellent source of bioactive peptides. The bioactive peptides are in an inactive state in the protein and are released during enzymatic activity, e.g. during cheese ripening. Specific properties of bioactive peptides from ripened cheese has been reported, e.g. antihypertensive, antioxidative, antimicrobial, immunomodulatory and mineral binding.

Medvetenheten om ett socialt och miljömässigt ansvar har på senare år ökat bland företagen. Det har blivit allt viktigare för företagen att visa omvärlden att man är ett engagerat företag som tar sitt samhällsansvar. Tidigare forskning har visat att det finns kommunikationsproblem mellan företagen och omvärlden när det gäller företagens CSR-arbete. Detta problem kan leda till att företagen inte når ut till sina intressenter och därmed inte kan skapa det förtroende för redovisningen som de önskar. I och med detta kommunikationsproblem kan det uppstå en negativ inställning från samhället gentemot företagens motiv bakom hållbarhetsredovisningen.

Bakgrund: Under slutet av 1900-talet uppstod ett intresse bland svenska företag att redovisa miljöinformation. I dag finns endast lagstadgade krav på att företag som bedriver tillstånds- eller anmälningspliktig verksamhet enligt miljöbalken skall ange detta samt ett antal andra relaterade uppgifter i årsredovisningens förvaltningsberättelse. Miljöredovisning är annars inte reglerat enligt svensk lag och det finns inte inom området någon enhetlig praxis. Hur redovisar de börsnoterad företagen miljöinformation? Följer de lagens krav? Använder sig företagen av de riktlinjer och standarder som finns, vid utformningen av sin miljöinformation?Syfte: är att undersöka hur svenska börsföretag 2004 har redovisat miljöinformation i sina årsrapporter, samt eventuella separata miljö- eller hållbarhetsredovisningar.Genomförande: Kvantitativ undersökning (dokumentundersökning) av 270 svenska börsföretags årsredovisningarResultat: De lagstadgade kraven som ställs på redovisning av miljöinformation följs illa, 69 procent bryter på något sätt mot kraven.

Title: What´s the problem? - A study of revenue recognition in IT-consultant     companiesProblem: How do the chosen IT-consultant companies recognize their revenues? What difficulties do the interviewed companies experience in connection with the revenue recognition?Purpose: The purpose of this empirical study is to study how companies in the IT-consultant industry recognize revenues, and to investigate if the companies perceive any difficulties in connection with the revenue recognition. The aim of the study is to give useful advice and guidelines to companies in the IT-consultant business based on the extracted result. Method: The survey took place in Vasteras and started with a preliminary interview with a certified accountant, who had great knowledge of the subject revenue recognition. Then seven companies from the IT-consultant industry were selected, whereof two took part in semi constructed interviews.  Study of the other five companies? ways to recognize revenue was made through their annual reports.   Conclusion: One of the studied companies recognizes their revenues according to the rules in IAS 18, which is because it is listed on the stock exchange.

Inom alla verksamheter och organisationer finns det idag någon form av informationssystem. För att effektivisera, förändra och stödja verksamheten har allt fler företag valt att anskaffa ett standardsystem som hjälpmedel. Tyvärr innebär detta även att ett antal problem kan uppstå. Ett av de mest kritiska problemen som bör försöka undvikas är utebliven användaracceptans. Syftet med detta arbete var att undersöka vilka insatser som bör vidtas i arbetet med att anskaffa ett standardsystem, för att förbättra användaracceptansen.

Title: Audit teams ? what affects the efficiency?Authors: Petter Johansson and David RubinSupervisor: Andreas JanssonCourse: Dissertation Accounting, 4FE03E, 30 ECTS, Spring 2011.Key Words: Audit team, Efficiency, Team WorkBackground and problem: Theory and literature in the field of audit teams?efficiency are limited. The theory and literature that existed was not conducted inSwedish context. It was identified that no one had examined the factors thatinfluence the efficiency of the Swedish audit team's. Efficiency affects howresource-and cost-effective an auditing firm can be while the audit is performedwith quality and therefore it is of interest to be examined.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore and explain what may affectSwedish audit teams? efficiency during the work processMethod: The thesis has been based on existing theory and literature to explainwhat affects audit teams? effectiveness.

Syftet med vår uppsats är att förklara vad det är som driver de allmännyttiga ideella idrottsföreningarna in i gråzonen mellan den korrekta och helt felaktiga redovisningen.Vi valde att göra vår uppsats med hjälp av åtta fallstudier. Vi har utvecklat en egen teori som avser att förklara vilka faktorer som driver allmännyttiga ideella idrottsföreningar in i Gråzonen. Teori har vi utvecklat utifrån Positive Accounting Theory, den institutionella teorin och agentteorin. Från teorin har vi sedan utarbetat sex hypoteser som vi avser att pröva med en empirisk undersökning.Vi gjorde ett icke-sannolikhetsurval för att få med allmännyttiga ideella idrottsföreningar i urvalet som vi ansåg relevanta för undersökningen. Det innefattade att föreningarna skulle skilja sig gentemot varandra i storlek, medlemsstruktur och grundförutsättningar.