Transdermal drug delivery, besides painfulinjections with syringes, has long been associatedwith small size particle pharmaceuticals, which candiffuse through the skin. This method of drugadministration has only been applicable on a smallnumber of drugs, where active molecules are smalland delivery time should or can be long.Other drug delivery options are oral administrationand injection with hypodermic needles (ordinaryhospital syringes). In oral administration thestomach and liver tend to dissolve the drug and theeffect becomes more difficult to anticipate, anddrug delivery rates difficult to control. Hypodermicneedles are used as a mean of drug injectiondirectly into the bloodstream. This method ispainful and risks infection due to tissue damageand skin penetration.One way to get a painless non-damaging techniquewith high delivery rate that still can delivery largemolecules is to manufacture an array of microscopichollow needles and equip them with a pumping unitthat delivers the correct amount of drugs.This thesis shows the technique and possibility ofmanufacture micromachined needles using low costtechniques of Ion Track Technology (radiation ofheavy ions creates porous materials), electrolessdeposition (non-current activated wet chemistrymethod of depositing metal) and electroplating.

AbstractMaster thesis in Business Administration, School of Business and Economics at Linneaus UniversityAuthors: Patrik Larsson and Pontus GislénSupervisor: Håkan LockingExaminer: Sven-Olof CollinTitle: The index effect- a study on Nasdaq OMXS30 and OMXH25Introduction: A significant part of the financial literature is based on the Efficient Market Hypothesis which assumes that prices in the market reflects all available information. Anomalies, such as the index effect, indicate weaknesses in this theory as it has been proved that it is possible to outperform the market using public information. Hence, the index effect can be linked to market efficiency which makes it interesting to study from a theoretical perspective. The mapping of the index effect is also interesting from a practical perspective, as it leads to a better understanding of whether investors and firms should take this anomaly into account.Problem: Is there an index effect, how does it behave and what can explain this effect?Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the index effect.

Venture capital firms and private equity firms have been the subject of much controversy in the last decade. During this period economies throughout the world have seen a steady increase of these types of firms as owners of companies. In Sweden this has certainly been the case and many argue that this trend will continue to grow stronger in the future. This trend is by many regarded as dangerous and as a threat to the ownership model that has characterized the Swedish economy for decades. Family ownership has been widely regarded as the most beneficial and responsible ownership model in Sweden.

This thesis analyzes the effects of export subsidies on Swedish cereal export. The analyzes are based on data on cereal export from Sweden to countries outside the EU from 1990 to 2003. In 1995 Sweden became a member of the European Union. Before the membership, the Swedish agricultural policy was decoupled in a larger sense than the European CAP was, which means that the Swedish producers had decreased their production more than the European farmers. When Sweden became a member of the EU the production started to increase again to an EU level.

The following essay investigates emission rights accounting. Presently there are several methods through which emission rights can be accounted for by companies. The rights can for instance be valued at fair value or nominal value and as marketable securities or intangible assets; due to a lack of consensus or clear standards companies use these or other accounting methods to value their rights. This essay investigates whether there is a relationship between the company?s choice of accounting method, the key ratio number of owned emission rights/total assets, the accounting firm used and the yearly result as a sign of earnings management.Through a quantitative study based on questioners and numbers from the annual reports three hypothesis are tested.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is a phase in the digital revolution connecting computing devices with each other bringing along new business opportunities for companies. Although being a fast growing field it has not been researched to any greater extent, particularly not within the academical literature. Consequently, information on how M2M can affect organisations seems strongly needed. This thesis uses three perspectives, derived from already recognised business benefits of M2M, as an aid to select proper theoretical tools to investigate the phenomenon. The purpose of this thesis is to gain knowledge of how an M2M adoption affects a firm?s organisation, customer offerings and customer relations.

The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of the dynamics behind Chinese-Western buyer-supplier relationships. The study takes on a partially inductive approach by commencing with exploratory in-depth interviews. The main body of the study consists of a cross-sectional survey. Data has been collected through an on-line questionnaire. The theoretical review consists of industrial relationships with specific accounts on the role of adaptation, trust and commitment; a stream of literature in cross-cultural relationships deriving from Hofstede?s culturalist legacy with specific reference to Chinese-Western relationships, including studies on relationship bonding, and the role of guanxi.

Platelets are important for the healing of damaged blood vessels since they have an importantpart to play in the coagulation process. At the same time, the blood must be kept fluid and notcoagulate at the wrong time. Therefore there are factors that effect the aggregation of plateletsin a positive or a negative way.Previous investigations have shown that platelets during stirring conditions produce reactiveoxygen species (ROS) that weaken the inhibiting effect of nitric oxides (NO) on platelets andthat the drug Dexamethasone (Dex) can reduce the ROS-production.The aim of this project was to investigate if glucocorticoids, in this case Dexamethasone,could restore the inhibiting effect of NO on platelets and if there was any decrease in ROS-production.The result of the ROS-measurements showed a great variance and it was difficult to draw anyconclusions from them, but a clear decrease in ROS, as previous reported, was not shown. In the aggregation experiments the inhibiting effect of NO was observed through the drug S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP), a NO-donator.From the aggregation experiments, the result seemed to be that SNAP during longerincubation time lost its inhibiting effect, probably because the cells become desensitized.With superoxid dismutase (SOD), the effect of SNAP increased, both in the experiment withlonger and shorter incubation times. Dex seemed to reinforce the aggregation in relation toboth SOD and SNAP.

Ipendo Systems in Linköping, Sweden, is a small IT consulting firm developing among other things custom portal applications based on Microsoft Sharepoint 2010. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the test tools TestComplete and LoadComplete provide sufficient compatibility for functional and non-functional testing of Ipendo Systems? Sharepoint based applications, as well as design testing related activities to be incorporated into their existing software development framework. A test process maturity framework was chosen and applied for the design of the testing activities, while the test tool investigation resulted in guidelines on how to apply the tools effectively and circumvent any issues discovered..

Purpose: The purpose with this study is to see what the small limited companiesprefer of the alternatives to the statutory audit that has been created inthe others EU-countries. These alternatives can be current in Sweden tomaintain the credibility.Method: Quantitative procedure.Conclusions: By the result to judge from the small limited companies prefer the alternativeto the statutory audit where they do not need to hire further helpto complete the audit. That is probably why the bookkeeping agency hasbeen chosen to give a guarantee for quality endorsement..

The aim of this study was to see if an increased amount of gas could be seen in the small bowel of cats subjected to trauma and if measuring the amount of gas could be of any use in the clinical evaluation of the patient. When the peristaltic waves in the small bowel decreases due to neurological damage or chock the microorganisms of the gut grow in number and possibly produce more gas and toxins. When the cat is stressed it can swallow more air then usual, and the air that is in solution with the chyme in the lumen of the gut separates from the ingesta. When the bowel isn?t moving it becomes easier for bacteria and toxins to penetrate the wall of the gut, and then get access to the bloodstream.

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 most dominating type of company in Sweden is the small-sized business and it usually lacks its own marketing department. The purpose of this paper was to analyze several small Swedish businesses which are specialized in different sectors of the Mechanic/Technology industry but they are similar in terms of having niched products and they are leading companies in the world. The objective was to do research about how small businesses work with marketing despite its lack of resources and capital.This survey has shown that customer contacts, customer relationships and especially for those investigated companies, it was very important to focus on globalization and product development in order to build a Point of Difference..

Previous research shows that small workplaces more often discriminate immigrants during the process of hiring new employees than larger workplaces, and usually explains this result by referring to structural factors. At the same time, previous research also shows that self-employees tend to have different personality traits than other people. Could it be the case that the higher discrimination among small workplaces can be explained at an individual level? I examined the hypothesis through OLS-regressions using a survey called Employment, Material Resources, and Political Preferences. The results showed that people working at small workplaces tend to have more negative attitudes towards immigrants than people working at larger workplaces.

The aim of this study is to investigate how non-profit engagement influence voting in school election, but also how the school has influenced the pupils to vote and if there are any differences between a big and a small town.The methods which have been used for this study are quantitative and qualitative, both questionnaires and interviews. To be able to see differences between a big and a small town the study was carried out in one school from each category of town.By examine the empirical material and analyse it with theories which are used for this study we have come to the conclusion that there are no obvious differences between pupils in the big town and the small town. Pupils in both schools were pretty engaged in associations, though had the pupils from the small town some higher level of engagement. Moreover, both schools had a high participation for the election. The result of the study showed that there were no noticeable tendencies on if the pupils choose to vote depending on engagement in associations.Furthermore, both schools were very engaged in the school election indeed.