Hedge funds have the past few years become an increasingly popular investment alternative and in the last decade hedge fund assets managed have quadrupled to USD 2000 billion, a growth rate of around 25-30% per year. One explanation for this substantial increase is that hedge funds' minimum limits on capital invested has declined, which have made ??them available to retail investors. The recent turmoil in financial markets has also contributed to investors finding their way to hedge funds, whose goal is to generate stable returns regardless of how the market develops.Using Sharpe?s, Treynor?s and Jensen's performance measures, I have investigated whether hedge funds manage to generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds.

In today?s society computers are getting a much more important role. To get a computer to work as intended it has to be programmed. A computer program is written with programming languages. There is an abundance of programming languages available today and there are many differences and similarities between them. The different languages have their advantages and their disadvantages where some of them are intended for fast performance, some to be cheap on memory usage, and some are developed to be easy to program on. In our thesis we have chosen to compare four of todays most common languages, C, C++, Java and Python.

The purpose of this master thesis is to evaluate how internal vehicle information inScania buses and trucks can be used for evaluation of driver performance regardingfuel economy, vehicle wear, traffic safety, emissions and cargo damage. To someextent it was examined whether this information could be used for training the driverto a better driving style. In addition, a prototype for such a system was developed.By first defining what distinguishes a talented driver and how he/she differs from apoor driver, followed by a study of the internal vehicle communication, a system thatin real-time gathers and interprets vehicle data could be developed.The resulting system can with reasonably high reliability detect a number of trafficevents (such as braking, lane changing or hilltops). At each such event, the driver?sbehaviour can be evaluated.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to study how the hotel chain Radisson SAS works with prolonged customer relations with their business clients, with other words the clients that have business agreements with them.Methods: This study will contain an inductive approach and qualitative methods. The qualitative research method is in the shape of a deep interview with the sales manager of Radisson SAS and qualitative interviews of chosen business clients to the hotel.Results: The results of this investigation show that business clients are controlled by what kind of agreements their company has.The companies sign agreements with hotels and hotel chains that are able to satisfy big parts of their needs, if not all of them.With the help of flexible solutions, a well known brand, and good relations, Radisson SAS has made sure that their business clients have prolonged their agreements.They are a global hotel chain near transports, and business clients feel secure with Radisson SAS..

This thesis reports on the methodology and results of a study with one retailers 73 units to investigate factors of the store managers leadership that influence productivity performance in store. The study determine the impact of ten independent variables in terms of the store managers leadership on four performance measures: (3) three productivity measures: Sales Over Labor (SALOL), Sales Over Inventory (SALOI) and Sales Over Square-metre (SALOS) and (1) one profit measure: Contribution Income Over Square-metre (CIOS). The result shows that the leadership factors give no more explanation to the economic results after factors of local market condition and the store attributes are taking in to account. The store manager's leadership can though influence his or her decision-making in-store. The store manager's decision to staff the store more intense (higher service-intensity) can increase the level of contribution income over square metre in-store..

AbstractWith increasing population and increasing demands for comfort and thus an increase in energy demand, it is necessary to examine various energy-efficiency measures. This work deals with the ability to control the flow through the heating system to achieve the desired comfort with as little energy as possibleA heating system contains of different parts, roughly speaking, you can divide it to three main components: Heat source, Distribution and Heat emitters. All components are working together to bring heat to the building. What is examined in this report are different ways of adjusting the flow and supply temperature and how it affects comfort and energy use in a building.At today ?s date the conventional method is to use a high flow through the heating system, which affects pressure drop and cooling of the fluid.

Sågverksindustrins logistikkostnader är idag höga och utgör närmare en fjärdedel avslutpriset på produkten. Branschen möter nu konkurrens från andra delar av Europa ochkunderna ställer samtidigt högre krav på snabbare och mer flexibla leveranser. I Varberggörs sedan hösten 2009 en stor satsning för att effektivisera logistikflödet inom branschenför sågade trävaror vilket har resulterat i ett koncept som sedan 2011 går under namnetTimberbridge.Med utgångspunkt i de höga logistikkostnaderna inom sågverksindustrin är studiens syfteatt studera om samarbete mellan företag kan effektivisera sågverkens transport-ochlogistikupplägg från sågverk till kund. För att utreda detta genomfördes inledningsvis endjupintervju med en representant från Port of Varberg för att få relevantbakgrundsinformation. Dessutom har tidigare forskning inom olika teoretiska områdenstuderats och har sedan kombinerats med empirisk data från en undersökning i form avtelefonintervjuer med 29 svenska sågverk.Det insamlade datamaterialet har sedan analyserats och resultatet visar att Timberbridgehar goda förutsättningar för att bli en etablerad leverantör för svenska sågverk.

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to analyze TPL companies, and their collaboration with their customers from a TPL perspective. The paper intends to get a bigger understanding of their collaboration, advantages/disadvantages and how the collaboration can be improved. The foundation for the paper is obtained through questions that have been created from the chosen theories about supply chain, third part logistic (TPL) and lean production. We have had open interviews with five different conveyers where we have had our questions prepared and during the interviews asked new questions to get more distinct answers. When we subsequently analyzed the empirical material and by chosen theories we have been able to confirm that the collaboration between the TPL companies and their customers is more of a partnership character.

In this study environmental work in the Swedish hotel chain "Scandic" is investigated. Earlier studies point out sustainability and different environmental certificate programs as essential for the housing sector to contribute to sustainable tourism. The purpose and willingness to fulfill such a mission has been investigated by interviewing central actors in the hotel chain. The result shows that there is a desire to be part of environmental certificate programs mainly for the reason to be part of the system and not for the benefit of nature. Sustainable development is understood as being environmentally friendly. Different solutions to adapt and being more environmentally friendly is discussed.

This study is a value chain analysis for timber in East Africa. It was commissioned by Vi Agroforestry, a nongovernmental organisation registered in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania engaged in a rural development program that involves promoting tree planting and enterprise development (Vi Agroforestry, 2012). The purpose of the study was to identify and describe common value chains for timber in the countries where Vi Agroforestry operated. Value chain is a concept and a framework describing how to structure information regarding activities included in satisfying a certain customer need, e.g. procurement, logistics, transactions, production and marketing.

This master thesis is based on a general issue of quality in social services. I have chosen to illustrate through an empirical case, namely the position social responsibility coordinator and shortened SAS.This position is fairly new to the Swedish social services and has the overall mandate to monitor, develop and ensure quality.To study this, I have developed two analytic schemes. One is based on the concept of quality value components, the second is based on the concept of quality character components. These analytical schemes are used as the presented material. When I study mycase, I have used two methods, documents and questionnaires.In this study I will try to describe how new solutions to improve the quality of social services can conform and develop.

Purpose: The Swedish correctional service is on the brink of its biggest expansion in history, due to political investments related to battling a rise in gang related criminality. The purpose of this thesis is to exam and understand the strategic competence supply work from an employer perspective and investigate the elements included in the Swedish correctional service competence supply form a regional perspective. The study specifically focus on what strategies the Swedish correctional service employ to attract, recruit, develop and retain workforce. Theory: The theoretical framework of the study includes among others, a model divided into three different phases (within, in and out) within competence supply, the demand-control-support model, push and pull factors, as well as the two-factor theory. Method: This study has a qualitative approach with semi structured interview as its specific method. A total of seven interviews were conducted with personnel within the swedish correctional service. Results: The main challenges are related to recruitment, staff retention, support of managers, and the fact that many correctional officers do not have time to complete their training before leaving. The latter is particularly significant are of concern.

The aim of this thesis is to model my artistic practice on an adaptation of Joseph Campbells monomyth and, using this model, investigate challenges of performativity in art (in public spaces). The overall themes are personal, aesthetic and ethical sovereignty and an uncompromising search for a deepening of the artistic practice. More than anything else it is a map and a story of an artist?s expansion out into an artistic field that is little developed in Sweden. It is my hope that this thesis, by using a thoroughly subjective tone, will contribute to the milieu of performative arts in Sweden as well as widen the ?how? regarding the making of a written thesis..

This study in the subject of forest planning is made for Sveaskog and its aim is to develop tools that prognosticate outcome in terms of volumes per sort from not yet cut forest stands. The degree of detail is just to get reliable results for at least one months volumes, for Sveaskogs own forestland in the market region of Norrbotten that is about 100 000 m3fub. The course of action to accomplish this is regression analysis and the data consists of cut tracts on own forestland in Norrbotten during the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. That is a little more than 4 million m3fub. Two tools were made.

High-performance equine athletes have an energy requirement that often reaches twice the maintenance requirement. Horses are grazers and adapted to a grass diet, and diets high in grains and concentrates are associated with digestive upsets and behavioural disorders. It could therefore be of interest if the energy requirement of a high-performing horse could be met by forage. It is important that the forage have a high concentration of energy so that the horse is able to consume the whole amount of energy needed from the forage without exceeding the maximum voluntary intake. The purpose of this literature study was to investigate if the energy demand of a high-performance horse can be covered by forage produced under Northern Swedish climate conditions.