The aim of this study is to examine whether the two factors SMB and HML in the Fama-French Three Factor Model proxy for default risk. The study is based on companies noted on the Stockholm Stock Exchange between 2003 and 2008. These companies are used to create the factors SMB and HML, as well as a default risk factor we call RMS. In a first set of regressions, we examine the explanatory power of the original Fama-French model on a set of portfolios consisting of Swedish companies of different size and book-to-market ratio. The default risk factor RMS is then added to the original Fama-French model.

This thesis aims to analyse a time series containing the annual accumulation rate of minerogenic matter in the lake Kassjo?n. First there is a theoretical survey of some frequently used tools for the analysis of time series in the time domain and in the frequency domain. This survey is followed by a simulation study that illustrates how the theoretical tools work in practice. After this, the time series "toolbox" is used to analyse the time series from Kassjo?n (5701 data points).

During the winter 2011 Isaksson and Andersson did a time budget study on Nordens Ark?s Przewalskis horses during daytime when there were visitors and caretakers in the park. This time budget study was made during daytime and when there were no visitors or caretakers in the park. The horses where observed in the morning (5.30-6.30 am) and in the evening (5.45-6.45 pm) during four days. In addition to a time budget, the horses? positions in the enclosure were registered.

There is a great need to reduce nutrient leaching from arable land into lakes and oceans. By using several different types of models it has previously been possible to describe nutrient losses in a catchment area with a minimum unit of sub-catchment level. At present, it is instead desirable to model a smaller catchment with an opportunity to re-connect the results to the corresponding fields in the catchment. Such models already exist but they are not fully able to properly describe Swedish conditions and land characteristics in our region.With the approach of creating such a model, SLU has developed a project with this work as its first stage. The model is expected to be created under the working name SWE-model which stands for Soil Water Environment and is in this first stage supposed to apply the SOIL model in catchment scale. During the procedure to describe the first step in the process of developing such a model adapted to Swedish conditions and which works in the catchment scale with an area of about 10-30 km2, focus has been set on calculating the transport of water flow from different hydrological response units. Regardless of the processes occurring in the soil after the water has been added, it is assumed that all the water which flows from each simulated unit is drained.In the first step the hydrologic response units were identified based on land use and soil type in the study area. With the help of a script with functions that retrieve and transform data, certain units were chosen for simulation. The script was also created in this project. Finally, the model results were aggregated and summarized for each unique unit, for each sub-catchment, and also for the whole catchment.From the results it is possible to see similarities in the flow dynamics between modeled and measured data. The efficiency coefficient has been calculated to correspond to the mean of the measured values for the whole simulation period. With an automated calibration process the model should be able to perform better. The volume error gives an indication of overestimation from the model..

This paper is a degree project on the C-level, 15 points at University West, Department of Business and IT dept. Informatics. This study is about agile methodology and its impact on IT projects. Requirements management is a process within an IT project, where customer has certain requirements that must be met by an IT system. The difference between the traditional and agile development is in the requirements management process and it can cause problems in a project.

Objective: In recent years there has been an increasing interest within the clinical (medical) science in measuring people?s health. When estimating quality of life, present practise is to use the EQ-5D questionnaire and an index which weighs the different questions. The question is what happens if the individuals estimate there own health, would it differ from the public preferences? The aim is to make a new prediction model based on the opinion of patients and compare it to the present model based on public preferences.Method: A sample of 362 patients with unstable coronary artery disease from the Frisc II trial, valued their quality of life in the acute phase and after 3, 6 and 12 months.

Bankruptcy is a problem for the society in form of high costs for including suppliers, customers, employees, investors, banks, insurance companies etc. The purpose of this study is to confirm or dismiss a bankruptcy prediction model that has been developed in a previous Swedish study, in order to predict bankruptcy with help of specific key figures. The model has only been tested in a larger perspective where the population consisted of all small firms in Sweden, in this study the model´s reliability is tested by that it instead been applied to a minor perspective, where the population only includes Stockholm. With a quantitative approach of 12 different key figures from a total of 60 Swedish smaller registered companies in Stockholm between the years 2005-2007, has been studied. The companies are divided into two groups, companies with good financial health and companies that have ended up in bankruptcy.The results shows that the model is applicable in a smaller population, but some of the key figures do not generate essential or any type of information about bankruptcy, but the majority of the key figures in the model did.

This thesis explores strategic communication management within the non-profit sector. Communication models need to be adapted to the specific sector as different sectors require different approaches of strategic communication management. In the spring of 2013, the non-profit organization Save the Children Sweden initiated a communication model based on volunteer communicators. The following study explores how non-profit organizations can manage communications with a focus on volunteers as a communication resource. The applied research questions concern how volunteers may be integrated into communication activities, the opportunities and challenges connected to involving volunteer communicators and how this may affect the role of the organization's employed communicators.

In early January 2010 the authors participated in a meeting with the chief engineer for a company in which a central part is manufacturing of printed circuit boards (PCB). At this meeting it emerged that the machinery and production methods have changed substantially since the early 1990's. The spreadsheet for preliminary production time calculations by the company is today based on conditions from almost 20 years ago. The company has over the years been trying to adjust the spreadsheet template. The result of these adjustments has filled it with historical residue, something which makes the template difficult and time consuming when the primary user tries to handle it.The purpose of this study was to help the company increase its accuracy in the representation of the production times for the different PCB-based products by developing a new costing model based on an already existing but inadequate spreadsheet template. The company also expressed the wish that the new costing model would be less time consuming to work with.The methods used to achieve the goal are interviewing, participatory observations and meetings with relevant persons. The data obtained were analyzed using the theory on PCB production and visualization of data.

Given that the end-customer has become more demanding, the retailer has to deliver products according to the market demands, which have forced manufacturing companies to constantly search for new opportunities to reduce costs and improve efficiency. It is, therefore important to choose suppliers that are able to compete with the market demands.The market demands in the textile industry have lead to shorter product life cycles, which have caused manufacturers to deliver flexibility with high technology to compete successfully on the global market. To achieve the market requirements the underlying factor is to be aware and optimally use and control time. New technology can have a major influence in the production development, if the company choose to take benefit of the advantages, by optimal allocation of the internal resources the productivity and efficiency will increase, to accomplish a competitive advantage. One way to achieve this is by investing in a Unit Production System.In our thesis we have questioned what the main driving forces for an apparel manufacturing company is when it chooses to invest in new technology.

Internal working models of attachment are claimed to be unconscious structures operating outside the conscious awareness. Existing measures of attachment are almost exclusively explicit, either self-reports or interviews and it is questionable whether these instruments are able to tap into unconscious attachment attitudes. The main purpose of the present study is to develop Implicit Association Test (IAT) tools for assessing adult attachment and to examine their construct validity. Two sets of implicit attachment measures, based on the two-dimensional attachment model (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991), were developed. Convergent validity was assessed by examining (1) the relationship between implicit model of self and implicit self-esteem and (2) the relationship between the implicit model of other and implicit sociability.

This study presents a holistic view of which factors small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have to consider, in moving their customer order decoupling point (CODP) further from the customer, thereby becoming more customized. The study also investigate whether SMEs and larger enterprises differ in the strategic questions relating to what influences an enterprise to become more customized, which prerequisites are required and which problems enterprises should anticipate and prepare for. These questions are important, given that strategic change is challenging, and can take considerable time to accomplish; it therefore needs to be based on the right decisions. This study is motivated by the fact that the markets SMEs are selling to tend to become more and more complex and harder to anticipate. Increased globalisation and use of IT and ICT have lead to greater uncertainty in customer demand.

Today's labor market is characterized by flexibility. This applies to organizations, forms of employment and working time. Unregulated working time is such an adaptation and the main subject of this essay. The purpose of this study was to investigate the conditions that underpin unregulated working time, in relation to the Swedish legislation and to EU legislation. The intention has been to investigate the work environment impacts of unregulated working time, and what differences there are from a gender perspective.The conclusion is that workers who enter into agreements for unregulated working time have significantly different terms from traditional workers.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate what attributes were used in story-time activities, why attributes were used in story-time activities and what functions they have. The study is based on qualitative methods in the form of a literature studies, observations and interviews. The interviews were undertaken with two storytellers from the same public library. The story-time activities were adapted for children from three to six years of age. The study suggested that there was a connection between story-time activities and a social and cultural perspective.

The formulation of visions into practical projects is an important part of the professional expertise of landscape architects. This expertise includes the gathering, structuring, improvement and utilization of knowledge. Project models have been developed to provide tools for the implementation and governance of projects, as well as means of learning, reflection and survey of individual projects. The aim of this thesis is to describe some general project models and their theory, and to describe practical, real-life examples of project models used within landscape architecture. Questions asked are: ? How do the processes of idea to construction in landscape architectural projects lool like? Do project models have a relevance for the mission of landscape architects? ? Is a common project model used within such projects, or is the project model varying depending on e.g.