This project was conducted during the spring semester 2013 at mechanical engineering program at University Halmstad. The project was conducted in collaboration with MPQ Consulting in Halmstad. MPQ Consulting is a newly established company looking to take step into the product development world. The company has already had ideas and existing products. One of the ideas is to construct and design a form of beach games whose rules are based on the volleyball rules.

The forecast ability of four well-known exchange rate models for theSwedish krona is tested in this thesis. The models that are tested arethe purchase power parity, the real interest differential model, thesticky-price model and a productivity model. In addition to thebenchmark, the random walk, they are also compared to each other.They are all tested on three different horizons one quarter, two quartersand four quarters. The mean squared forecast error criteria and thedirection of change criteria are used for evaluation of the forecastability. Only in a couple of cases are the forecast ability of thetheoretical based models significant better than the random walk..

Diskriminering leder till en samhällsekonomisk ineffektivitet och tar sig uttryck både på individ- och samhällsnivå. Tidigare forskning har kartlagt och påvisat förekomst av etnisk diskriminering och könsdiskriminering på flera marknader i Sverige, men det har inte kunnat klargöras om diskrimineringen är statistisk eller preferensbaserad. Med kunskap om diskrimineringens karaktär kan beslutsfattare skapa effektivare policyinstrument för att motverka den diskriminering som visats förekomma i det svenska samhället. Ett problem på forskningsområdet är att det saknas empiriska metoder för att kunna särskilja diskrimineringen mellan olika förklaringsmodeller.Syftet med studien är att genomföra ett vinjettexperiment för att kunna särskilja den statistiska och preferensbaserade diskrimineringsteorin för diskrimineringsgrunderna kön och etnicitet. Studien syftar till att undersöka diskrimineringen i en svensk kontext i sammanhang som involverar tillit och generositet.

Intense competition among companies and luck or unavailability of certain resources in country of company?s origin force last to cross the borders, and start to hunt for new markets and cheaper inputs. However, by investing abroad the company is not only facing and dealing with cultural differences and new regulatory framework, but also becomes dependent on decisions and actions of different and to large extend unknown government. Moreover, the majority of the investments? flows are directed to developing countries, where power and capabilities of state authorities are considered to be more extensive than in countries of developed economies.

AbstractPurpose/Aim: The purpose of this paper was to identify the communication process at the company Cherry casino and see what opinions the employees had about it. Moreover, an evaluation of the used strategies was done and an analysis about what perhaps could be done to improve the attitude, communication and in the end the result for the company.Material/Method: The empirical material was gathered through qualitative interviews and theory application.Main results: The transmission of information regarding the regular work related information works just fine and the channels used are well chosen. But more large-scale information that deals with the company?s plans, strategies and targets is not handled in the right way. Neither is the respond.

This report describes the process of outlining a design proposal for a resource planning tool for TV post-production. A feasibility study in form of a participant observation has been carried out on-site, which has resulted in a requirement specification. Based on the requirement specification, mockups have been created to illustrate the functions and features that a final planning tool should have. In addition to developing a design proposal, an evaluation of the existing resource planning tool Ganttic has been conducted. Ganttic has been reviewed based on how well it meets the list of requirements.

Goal: To describe which evaluation method is used by Swedish retailers to assess a potential retail location and to describe to what extent the retail brand effects this strategic decision. Design: Analysis of ten interviews with companies within five retail sectors in Sweden. Main study: Indication of what methods are used to evaluate a location and how a company's retail brand affects the decision. Results: Retailers use a mix of theoretical methods to evaluate the location attributes and possible profit. Most common among mixtures was an application of the analog method, residual method or the checklist method in combination with a financial assessment.

Many product launches are postponed today, however very little research regarding to customer responses to such events has been carried out. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how people react to a postponed product launch. An experimental study of responses to a postponed launch of a mobile phone, a mineral water and a music album is used to investigate customer reactions. The respondents exposed to the postponed launch showed a higher value of reactance. This reactance affects the attitude, purchase intention and perceived quality of the product in a negative way.

The aim of this study is to describe how reviews of literature in Bonniers litterära magasin and Expressen changed during the period 1964-2004. The investigation is based on 20 reviews of novels and short stories, which are analysed with a method described in Hellspong and Ledin (1997) and inspired by Halliday. The theoretical frame of the investigation is founded on critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1992 & 2001) and Habermas´social theory of the public sphere.The investigation shows, among other things, that the reviews became shorter and easier to read in both paper during the period. The investigation also shows that the genre´s style, composition and contents are relatively stable, and that current ideologies in society have a tendency to be reflected in the reviewers´evaluation of the books. To generalize, the reviews thus developed from a poetic genre in 1964, to become political in the 1970s, academic in the 1980s, feminist in the 1990s and finally an intermedial genre in 2004..

Earlier research has shown that combining education with entertainment can improve students motivation in school. With this study we aim to learn more about interactive digital learning resources and how they should be designed to entertain and thereby contribute to motivation. We have identified aspects of educational games that also could be considered when developing interactive digital learning resources, to make them more entertaining and motivating. We have chosen to study and evaluate an interactive digital learning resource called ?Grasp the Disaster?, a fictional online adventure created for students in the ages between 13-15.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the difference in return between Swedish and Russian hedge funds while considering the risk taken.Method: This study is based on quantitative data on funds' historical returns from the electronic database Morningstar.se. Additional data is taken from the funds websites, the Swedish National Bank and Fondbolagens förening.Result and conclusion: All hedge funds, both the Russian and Swedish performed better thanthe index. The Russian hedge funds nevertheless performed better than their Swedishcounterparts in all three evaluation methods..

The use of chainsaws in both private forestry and commercial companies is highly associated with personal injuries and accidents with deadly outcome. As a result to this, a driver?s license for chainsaws was presented in the year 2005. To get the license you have to attend a course given by the Swedish Forest Agency or one of several private educators. This study is an evaluation of one course given by the Swedish Forest Agency in Uppsala.

In this work we have compiled results from various studies concerning medical conditions that may possibly be avoided by castration and the effects that may occur after castration of the healthy bitch. The work is a literature review but it also includes a summary on the age recommendations for castration of the healthy bitch, castration before or after the first heat and the castration method most commonly used of ovariohysterectomy and ovariectomy. The summary is based on a questionnaire answered by personnel from 20 veterinary clinics and animal hospitals evenly distributed throughout Sweden.The summary showed that ovariohysterectomy was the most common method of castration and the recommendation in age ranged from 6-12 months. Regarding castration before or after the first heat 75% of the veterinary clinics and animal hospitals answered that they recommended castration after the first heat. Literature study shows that there are both advantages and disadvantages of castration of the healthy bitch and that it therefore is important that each bitch get a personal and individual evaluation before a decision is taken concerning a castration..

certain building or environment can get a protection as a notable building if it contains certainvalues. These values are established by a certain category of people from the cultural sector.These people use established criterions to define the cultural value of the object. The objects canbe evaluated differently depending on who has done the evaluation. The people who protect thecultural environment and choose which buildings that are to be defining as notable buildingsoften uses a special model to characterise the different cultural values. This model is produced bya man called Axel Unnerbäck.

The Swedish Transport Agency has for a long time collected data on a monthly basis for different variables that are used to make predictions, short projections as well as longer projections. They have used SAS for producing statistical models in air transport. The model with the largest value of coefficient of determination is the method that has been used for a long time. The Swedish Transport Agency felt it was time for an evaluation of their models and methods of how projections is estimated, they would also explore the possibilities to use different, completely new models for forecasting air travel. This Bachelor thesis examines how the Holt-Winters method does compare with SARIMA, error terms such as RMSE, MAPE, R2, AIC and BIC  will be compared between the methods. The results which have been produced showing that there may be a risk that the Holt-Winters models adepts a bit too well in a few variables in which Holt-Winters method has been adapted.