Being able to predict the future had been an invaluable competitive advantage for any corporation. Forecasting is a vital part of any business, hence a good forecast allows enterprises to invest in a beneficial way. However, there are several ways to prepare forecasts and the forecast methodology can vary. An industry that is dependent on forecasts is the energy industry. By predicting consumers' energy consumption, Swedish energy companies can hedge on the Nordic power market Nord Pool.

The share of problem gamblers increased for men between 18-24 years old during the period 1999-2009, while the share were steady or decreased for other classes of population. This study examines the relation between this development of problem gambling and the Swedish gambling market. The factors that are studied are the functioning of the market with a focus on the new Internet market for gambling, the games and the underlying risk factors in those, the marketing and other factors outside the gambling market. First a large literature review was made to map the development as detailed as possible. After that a qualitative analysis of the content in television commercials was done to see if they were made for the problem group.

In this study we have analysed from an intersectional perspective two textbooks Historia 1b and Progress Gold A which are purposed to be used as teaching material in Swedish schools in the subjects of History and English. Our question and reason for doing the analysis is to emphasise and make the variety of women in the books visible in order to compare that variety to the one that is demanded by the Swedish curriculum. The analysis is made from an ideology critical perspective and contains quantitative elements. Our conclusion is that the material contains both excluding and including features. Some intersectional categories are well represented while others, like functionality and religion, are not.

The purpose of my report is to create an interest in hand caning and different caning patterns, both for professionals and interested laymen. My hope is that they will use my report as a guide and an inspiration, for techniques such as braiding a cane seat. I also discuss how better to preserve cane furniture and different ways in which to finish it. Weaving is easier than you might believe.Today many people discard old and inherited furniture with elements of hand caning because it is too costly to have it repaired by a professional. Some people also remove the cane work and replace it with upholstery and fabric.

With a base in Ian Manners? theory about Normative Power Europe ? that the European Union is to be seen as a normative power instead of a civilian or military ? this paper seeks to contribute to the discussion about identity by examine the normative elements of the union?s policies towards Russia between 1997 and 2013. Which norms are most important and how does the diffusion look? The findings show that democracy, rule of law and respect of human rights are among the most diffused norms, and this is more than often done by using the Russian interest in economic progress. Over time the European Union has taken on a more critical approach against Russia, while still appreciating their prosperous relation when it comes to trade and energy.

With inspiration from Bitzers situational analysis a phenomenografic method has been used, influenced by Brown & Levinsons´s theory of politeness, to find perceptions concerning constraints (in Bitzer´s sense in his model of the rhetorical situation) in Internet-based communication. Based on three qualitative interviews, this essay has found that the perceptions are closely linked to views of what constitutes formal and informal contexts, varying due to the gender or age of the informant. Netspeak is not considered appropriate, with some exceptions, in any formal situation. However, the perceptions regarding decorum in informal situations differ in nature, based mainly on what kinds of associations and connotations are produced by elements found in netspeak. Since perceptions regarding informal situations vary, there is a large risk of misunderstanding, which this essay aims to survey..

The purpose of this thesis is to examine adults? fictionreading habits. The focus is finding out what differencesexist between men and women to study the significance offiction to readers. The study is based on a questionnairesurvey with men and women coming in to a public library.We used Sten Furhammar?s reading dimensions andcategories to describe the importance of the respondentsreading experience and describe the ways that men andwomen read.Our result shows that the genres men and women prefer arenovels, detective stories/thrillers and biographies.

This essay is an attempt in analysing the establishment of the first Early Middle Ages castles in Scania. There are two types of castles in Scania during the eleventh century, keeps andringworks. This castle was built by three fixed elements of power: the crown, the church and the aristocracy. The result of the survey shows that A majority of the castles during theeleventh century in Scania where initiated by the church.The results also show two building phases of castles under the period. The first building phase begins in middle of the eleventh century and the second building phase begins in theperiod 1180- 1200.

Syfte/Purpose Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka sambandet mellan aktiens omsättningsvolym och dess avkastning under olika marknadsförutsättningar./The purpose with this essay is to observe the correlation between the stock turnover volume and the return under different situations on the market. Metod/Method Den metod som jag har använt mig av är en kvantitativ undersökning. Genom att utföra en kvantitativ undersökning har jag gjort det möjligt att undersöka ett stort antal aktier. Jag har jämfört utvecklingen av 60 stycken, slumpmässigt utvalda, aktier vid både en positiv samt negativ trend av index./The method that I have used is a quantitative study. By execute a quantitative investigation I have been able to study a large amount of different stocks.

The construction industry is currently receiving much criticism for inefficiency and slow development while demands for reduced built in moisture and efficiency increases. This report examines whether the use of field factories can meet these requirements and what factors that will be critical for future use of field factories. Industrialized construction with field factory is compared with traditional loose timber construction and industrial construction in the fields of execution, logistics and working environment. The aim of this report is to provide a basis for field factories current and future use and development. To achieve the aim of the report, people with experience in the use of the various methods was interviewed and literature studies in the various fields done.

Forestry in Sweden is currently conducted in a manner aiming at equating the production objectives and the biodiversity. To ensure that biodiversity is maintained, patches that are considered to be valuable now or in the future is saved in final fellings. How the tree retention areas will grow into the future forest stands is yet unknown.The purpose of this study was to visualize how different scenarios of natural consideration taken at final felling will evolve in a long term perspective, for two rotation periods. Projections of the forest conditions were executed with the decision support system Heureka and its applications PlanStart and PlanWise. The information about the projected forests was then used for the visualizations which were created in the software Visual Nature Studio.

This report describes a study of how the teachers in Sweden are working with the dialog in their classrooms. The aim was to find out how the teachers are using the dialog in their teaching. And if they think that the dialog has a meaning for the pupils learning, and how they think the pupils learn. Even the difficulties whit the use of dialog in the classrooms and which in the classroom should speak the most was examined. The methods that I used in this qualitative report were interviews and observations of four teachers in the primary school.The research questions in this report were:Which meaning do the teachers think that dialog affects the pupils learning?How does the teachers work whit dialog in their classrooms?Who is leading the dialog in the classroom?Which are the difficulties when working with dialog in the classrooms?I found out that the teachers view on knowledge belonged together with how they worked with the dialog.

This report covers the thesis done by mechanical engineering at the engineering program at the University of Halmstad. Student Work Development of packaging in the food industry includes 15 credits and has performed over 20 weeks in spring 2009. The thesis work is a compulsory part of education and aimed at the student must apply the knowledge it has given during training in a project related to reality. Student work has been carried out in cooperation with Hanson & Möhringen AB and the project's main objective was to develop an environmentally friendly packaging to their brand Falk Salt. When salt is one of the world's cheapest commodity was packing all the costs have to be as low as possible.

Virtual Communities is an increasingly common phenomenon on the Internet. Most of the Virtual Communities are operated and maintained on a non-profit basis with a direction towards entertainment. However, as more state administrated and commercial services become web-based, we believe that the number of Virtual Communities with a community-based or commercial direction will increase in a near future. In this thesis, we describe our participation in, and studies of, a number of Virtual Communities with focus on the IRC-channel ?3dfxsweden?. On the basis of our experiences, we describe the social elements that form the foundation on which the Virtual Community rely on.

Fuel pellets are a refined bio fuel mostly consisting of residues from sawmills and wood industry. At Rindi Västerdala AB's combined bio energy plant in Vansbro fuel pellets are produced, while the waste heat from the process is used for district heating. The pellets are produced from sawdust, wood shavings and dry wood chips that is dried, milled and pressed into small cylindrical rods. The advantage of refining the wood material in this manner is that the energy value is greater per unit volume and unit weight, thereby the cost of transportation per energy unit is reduced. Also, less storage space is needed.Pellet manufacturing is a complex process since many parameters affects the final results.