The purpose of this study is to examine which factors played an important role in the food price crisis of 2007-2008. Theories used are Microeconomic theory, explaining changes in supply and demand, and Macroeconomic theory, explaining the impact of changes in exchange rate on prices. A theory regarding speculation is also used to explain the impact of speculative activities effects on price. The method used is multiple regression analysis in order to determine the effects which ethanol production, oil price and dollar exchange rate had on the surge in the price of corn, rice and wheat.The data used is in monthly observations during the period 2005-2008. However, other factors are taken into consideration during the study, such as production quantity, stock size, economic growth, speculative activity and population growth.

Today?s farmers are constantly affected by the fluctuating world market prices on grain and thereby the price risk that comes with the price fluctuations. The volatile prices of grain increase the price risk within the business, which in turn affects the profitability of the business. The fluctuating prices together with the increased price risk within the farm business have opened up the market for hedging instruments. In this master thesis project, the aim is to identify the underlying end-values of 30 Swedish farmers? related to their choice of using hedging and the product; forward contract.

Hydroware Elevation Technology AB sells control and regulation equipment for hydraulic elevators. The company now wants to investigate the possibility of changing their present softstarters to frequency inverters to supply power to their pump engines. They also want to investigate the possibility of future use in so called ?intelligent? houses.The purpose of this report is to investigate these possibilities..

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur småföretag väljer mellan olika finansieringsformer. Metod: För att uppfylla uppsatsens syfte så har vi tillämpat en kvalitativ metod, där en studie genomförts genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med företagare i fyra utvalda småföretag. Slutsatser: Denna undersökning visar på att småföretag bland olika finansieringsalternativ har mest kunskap om bankfinansiering, varför metoden känns trygg och således ofta tillämpas av småföretagare. Kunskapen om andra finansieringsalternativ är bristfällig, och det anses för tid- och kostnadskrävande att skaffa sig kunskap tillräcklig djup nog för att kunna förankra finansieringsbeslut i..

The ambition with this study is to look into and create an understanding for how an intranet can work as a support system in work processes in capacity as a source of knowledge. We want to enhance the understanding for which kind of knowledge that can be coded in and transmitted by an intranet, and which that is lost in this process. We also want to clarify what it takes to get this knowledge, in collaboration with the intranet, to support the work in an organization. It is a qualitative case study at a Swedish bank. It consisted of semi standardized, half structured interviews with five people in one of the bank?s local offices.

Vårt arbete behandlar möjligheterna och hindren för att använda additiva tillverkningsmetoder (AM) med metall som bas för direkttillverkning vid batchproduktion. AM tillåter användaren att tillverka delar med komplicerade geometrier som är svåra, eller i vissa fall omöjliga, att tillverka för dagens konventionella tillverkningstekniker. Dessutom tillåter teknologin tillverkaren att skapa inre strukturer i ett material som exempelvis gitter- och bikakestrukturer. Metoderna för AM med metall skiljer sig bitvis ganska mycket åt, men grundprincipen är att man bygger upp en modell lager för lager utifrån en given digital fil, oftast CAD. Vårt arbete har därför behandlat området utifrån ett i första hand tekniskt men även kunskapsmässigt och ekonomiskt perspektiv då dessa har behövts analyseras i kombination med varandra för att på ett tillfredställande sätt kunna analysera området.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur ansvariga personer för företagens outsourcingsprojekt utvärderar outsourcingen och om dess kriterier ändras under projekttiden. Metod: Abduktiv metod med främst kvalitativ datainsamling genom intervjuer. Slutsats: Det dominerande motivet bakom outsourcingen för de undersökta företagen är kostnadsbesparing. I början av projektet och vid leverantörsvalet undersöks också detta motiv. Under projektets gång utvärderas det som specificerades i avtalet mellan företaget och leverantören, vilket är mest mätbara kvalitetspunkter och fokus har därmed skiftat från det ursprungliga motivet..

 Denna uppsats behandlar hur sourcingprocessen av komplexa system på Försvarets Materielverks (FMV) kan struktureras genom att undersöka parametrar som är viktiga att beakta vid outsourcing. En del av FMV:s strategi grundar sig i att minska den interna verksamheten och att lägga större åtaganden på leverantörer av systemlösningar, för att på så sätt kunna minska behovet av interna resurser. Därför blir det viktigt att besvara huruvida systemansvar bör tas av FMV eller av en leverantör.Rapporten behandlar processen om att fatta ett beslut om make-or-buy och när och varför det är motiverat att överlåta systemansvar till leverantörer. McIvors modell om outsourcing används för att besvara frågan hur FMV bör fatta ett beslut rörande make-or-buy genom att modellen tillämpas på tre pågående projekt. Därefter används "the strategic supply wheel" för att bedöma vilka parametrar som är viktiga att uppfylla både internt och externt vid outsourcing av aktiviteter beroende på om tid, kostnad eller kvalitet är prioriterat i respektive projekt.

This thesis is about making a support for barcode readers and RFID readers on a computermounted in heavy vehicles. The computer has several applications designed for heavyvehicles such as an order handling application. The goal was to suggest an architecture toimplement a support for the readers. The architecture should be independent of whichmanufacturer who has made the reader hardware that was connected to the computer.At first a theoretically study was made around RFID technology and standards for thetransport and supply sector. Then the architecture was developed and a demo implementationwas made.The conclusion of this thesis is to implement support for barcode readers with a wedgeapplication.

The city of Uppsala and its surroundings are a very expansive area. A prerequisite for a sustainable development of the area is well-functioning supply of drinking water. In Uppsala municipality, the Uppsala esker and Vattholma esker are the groundwater storages for drinking water. Besides the eskers, other sources of qualitative groundwater in the Uppsala municipality are relatively poor and more than half of the area consists of ground conditions with a risk of saline groundwater. The neighbourhood of Vreta-Ytternäs is situated 10 km south of Uppsala, in the area with risk of saline groundwater but outside the municipal water supply.

In some coastal areas in Sweden water shortage sometimes appears because the withdrawal of groundwater is greater than the groundwater recharge. It creates a situation where the available groundwater is insufficient to support residents and businesses with drinking water. The high withdrawal of groundwater also creates a risk for saltwater intrusion to drinking water wells. The problem most commonly occurs during the summer when the groundwater recharge is low, but the population is high, due to tourism and summer residents.The purpose of this study was to investigate how local water supply in areas affected by water shortage can be solved as sustainable as possible. The work was divided into three parts where the first part comprised of a literature review on water systems in which four different options were investigated: artificial groundwater recharge, rainwater harvesting, desalination and water reuse.

Research Question: Does the pharmacy market seem to change in accordance with the goals stipulated by the government due to the reregulation?This leads to the following sub-questions:Does it seem like the availability of medical drugs for consumers increase?Does it seem like service for consumers get enhanced?Does it seem like the supply of services for consumers increase?Does it seem like the costs of medical drugs are maintained?Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate if the trends resulting from the reregulation of the pharmacy monopoly correspond to the goals stipulated by the government.The purpose is furthermore to compare the reregulation of other Swedish markets and the reregulation of the pharmacy market in other Nordic countries in order to heed their lessons.Method: This study uses method triangulation, with a questionnaire directed to pharmacy customers forming the quantitative basis and interviews with specialists regarding the pharmacy market, forming the qualitative. The study also draws heavily on historic data regarding reregulation of Swedish markets and reregulation of the pharmacy market in other Nordic countries.Conclusions:Availability of medical drugs has increased and will presumably continue to do so. Service quality has increased somewhat and will presumably continue to do so.Supply of services has increased and it will presumably continue to do so.The cost of medical drugs will only increase if it is required in order to satisfy the other goals.  .

The prevailing food and energy crisis of the world, due to the declining reserves of fossil energy and a never ending rise of consumption, forces us to look into new fields to supply our energy demand. The boom of bio energy is criticized, as food crops are used to provide biodiesel and ethanol and the volumes are ridiculously small to supply world demand. Algae are one of the world?s oldest life forms and exist in many different phyla, providing a great variety to choose from, for different purposes. Cultivating microalgae offer a way to produce energy at great volumes without competing with food production and at the same time the algae offer a way to use our expensive nutrients in a more efficient way, besides this the algae are carbon dioxide neutral since their carbon source can be supplied by the atmosphere and the additional energy required can be supplied by algal oil or other renewable sources.

When several production units provide a district heating network, water is pumped from different directions. When the flows from the plants finally meet in the network, the water can be completely still. These places are called zero flow zones. In district heating networks with several plants, which also have different supply temperatures, large and frequent temperature fluctuations can occur when the zero flow zones move. This may cause wear on the pipes, a phenomenon called low cycle fatigue.For this reason it is important to examine where and when zero flow zones that cause temperature changes occur.

Traditional product features such as price, quality and supply service have been extended and nowadays includes environmental aspects as well. It raises new and increasing demands on haulier companies. The transport sector is responsible for a large part of the pollutants causing today?s environmental problems. The business is being closely monitored and to operate environmental friendly is seen as one of the most important elements for the industry?s future development.