Forecasting is an important part in attempting to predict how companies will perform in the future. The more accurate the prediction, the more valuable are the results obtained from the forecast. This thesis aims to investigate forecasts of return on equity, and whether a disaggregation of the leverage formula into its underlying components affects the forecasting ability positively. This is conducted by comparing a model based on the leverage formula's components with a model solely based on return on equity from previous years. The study includes manufacturing companies on the Swedish Stock Exchange over the period 1998-2011.

I have done a follow up study of the restoration of two rivers, Röälven and Grundan, in order to evaluate the effects of the restoration on the endemic population of trout. Both rivers have been used for timber floating during many years throughout the 20th century, and because of this, had all obstacles such as rocks and wood parts removed. In 2004-2005 both rivers were restored, and rocks and wood were put back into the rivers. Spawning grounds were created and boulder dams were constructed to promote the streaming water. The result showed that the trout population of both rivers increased after the restoration, but also that the trout population of Röälven increased more than that of Grundan.

Information handling has been a key issue for different companies for a long time. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is used to transfer different business documents from one company to another. This is done in such way that the information itself is separated from how this information is stored and handled in the companies internal systems. As different companies have different systems there is a need for a standardised format for this exchange. There is a big difference between EDI-systems based on what kind of EDI-standard is used.

The aim of this masters thesis was to study how the members of a small non-profit organisation perceived the web forum, compared to the other information channels of the organisation. The organisation was defined as a virtual community. A literature review was conducted. The theory construction was based on the sensemaking theory. Interview questions were constructed based on the literature review and the sensemaking theory.

The main purpose of this essay is to look closer at how and when the Swedish women?s organization Grupp 8 changed their initial socialistic ideological approach and turned it into a feministic one during 1971 to 1979. By 1979 the group was referring to them self as a feministic movement. This is done by analyzing the way Grupp 8: s discussion in the areas of women in relation to work, family and society changes. The primary information is represented by the groups own magazine Kvinnobulletinen.

The aim of this thesis was to answer a number of questions about the environmental consequences of aircraft de-icing. A further aim was to suggest how the environmental consequences due to the release of de-icing fluids can be measured and reduced.The main impact of the aircraft de-icing on the environment is due to the large oxygen demand for the degradation of glycol based de-icing fluids which are released in the environment. The effect of the increase in oxygen demand depends on where the degradation occurs in the ecosystem. In a sensitive ecosystem, the large demand of oxygen could provide an anaerobic environment which would be harmful for many types of organisms.In order to reduce the negative effects of the applied de-icing fluid, there is some type of collection system at every regular airport in Sweden. The methods of collection can be divided into two general groups, hydrological isolation or vacuum sweeper trucks.

The thesis explores the Uncovered Interest rate Parity (UIP) and the possibility of cross-currency arbitrage between England, Germany and Sweden. The data is gathered between May 1999 and December 2005 on a monthly basis and is compared using simple regression analysis. The aim is to find out whether UIP holds and, if it does not, a risk premium exists that makes it possible to make arbitrage gains on moving capital between England, Germany and Sweden. It is discovered that UIP does not hold and that cross-currency arbitrage possibilities exist. In the end a an attempt is made to practically show how the arbitrage possibility could be used for a real investor to make risk free gains from the Foreign Exchange market..

Discharge of untreated wastewater leads to unnaturally high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in rivers, lakes and the sea, which results in unbalanced ecosystems with eutrophication and lack of oxygen. Part of the phosphorus in surface waters is coming from on-site wastewater treatment from scattered households with unsatisfactory purification. Blast furnace slag is a by-product from iron production, and has in laboratory trials showed good phosphorus binding capacity. To test blast furnace slag as a reactive filter media for phosphorus separation in a full scale experiment, a wastewater treatment plant has been built behind the picnic area at Ångersjön alongside the road E4 in central-eastern Sweden. The plant contains two parallel lines, one with blast furnaces slag and the other with Filtralite-P as phosphorus sorbent. Both filters have showed decreasing phosphorus purification effect with time in spite of a low wastewater load.

The purpose of this study was to investigate what competence social workers have, don´t have and ask for in the work with unaccompanied children, how a lack of competence and guidelines has been compensated in the practical work and how the social workers view the future work with unaccompanied children. This has been done through eight semi-structured interviews with social workers who work with unaccompanied children. The result has been analyzed with help of the theoretical perspective globalization connected to social work and showed that none of the social workers felt not having the competence to work with the children. However, everyone mention one or more areas where they ask for competence development. The study showed that lack of education has been compensated through practical experiences, knowledge exchange with others and that guidelines now have been formed.

Vaccination of fish can be assumed to cause pain. This study was designed to see if we can minimize the suffering of fish following vaccination. Fishes are cold-blooded animals and thus more primitive than warm-blooded animals. Despite this, many organs, e.g. the nervous system, have the same basic structure as that of other vertebrates. The fibre system for conducting pain is more diffuse than in humans.

With a strong company culture an organisation has relationships with their clients on an organizational level rather than on an individual. This simplifies the ability to change team members in order to enforce creativity and keep clients on a long-term basis. In turn the final product/service improves, which creates long-term relationships. Additionally, relationships on a personal level due to social activities helps Solberg detect early warnings-signs of eventual dissatisfaction from the client?s point of view.

Denna rapport beskriver arbetet med utvecklingen av en ny modell för kaplanturbiner. Utvecklingen bygger på två kopplade differentialekvationer som under arbetets gång anpassats och implementerats i turbinmodellen.Modellen beskriver hur vattenflöde och turbinmoment påverkas av avvikelsen från den optimala kombineringskurvan för vinklarna på turbinens ledskena och löphjul, och är anpassad för ett referensaggregat med tillgängliga provdata. Även övriga enheter i vattenkraftaggregatet modelleras och sätts samman med frekvensregulator och elnät för att simulera aggregatets reglerstabilitet i önätsdrift.Verifieringen av turbinmodellen sker genom försök att återskapa de befintliga verkningsgradskurvorna med hjälp av modellen. Resultatet visar en god följning av de verkliga kurvformerna, dock med något lägre maximal verkningsgrad.Verifieringen av önätmodellen sker genom att prova stabiliteten i nätfrekvens och turbineffekt vid stegpålastningar. Resultatet ger en stabilare reglerstabilitet än i verkligheten, men uppfyller ändå förväntningarna på en fungerande modell.This report describes the development of a new kaplan turbine model.

Mankind has always been communicating, it is almost impossible to not communicate. The communication tree has grown a new branch, the environmental communication branch, and an ISO standard, the ISO 14 063 Environmental communication- guidelines and examples was issued October 2006. The purpose of this thesis is commissioned by the managing director of NQA Nordic AB in order to examine and analyse how organisations communicate environmental issues today, and how big the need for ISO 14 063 actually is, and further more if there are needs and wishes to make ISO 14 063 a certifiable standard. The main conclusion is that the there is a need for the standard, but it is difficult to say in which form since the knowledge about the standard is far to low among the organisations examined in this thesis. Clarity and transparency as ISO 14 063 promotes are important ingredients in organisations? environmental work, so sure a standard for environmental communication can help improve environmental performance, for example through opening up for two-way communication and from that on take part of the stakeholders? opinions.This study is based on a literature study and a questionnaire survey where 70 organisations (in this case authorities, corporations and non-governmental organisations) randomly chosen from the seven criteria, which ISO 14 001 defines as the environment: land, water, air, flora, fauna, natural resources and man and his collaboration with those.

An ethnographic study loosely informed by the theoretical framework of distributed cognition was carried out in order to describe how mariners have adopted the Automatic Identification System (AIS) in their work practice, or"made the technology their own". AIS is a transponder-based identification and communication system that allows ships to automatically identify and track each other. In addition to facilitating the identification and tracking of ships, objectives behind the introduction of AIS are to"simplify informational exchange", and"provide additional information to assist situation awareness". Participant observation and interviews were made at four different ships, as well as at two shore stations. A focus group was also held at a maritime conference.

Kunskapsöverföring har ansetts vara av vikt inom företag och organisationer för att bevara kunskapen, informationen och för att kunna förmedla den vidare till andra medlemmar. Studiens primära syfte var att genom forskningsteorier och intervjuer effektivisera Rädda barnens Ellen och Allan projekt i deras kunskapsöverföring. 5 aktiva medlemmar inom Ellen och Allan projektet intervjuades samt 1 kontrollintervju genomfördes med en rutinerad projektledare från Svenska kyrkan, för att få fram dennes syn på projektets nuvarande situation gällande kunskapsöverföring.     Resultatet visade att det finns en viss otrygghet i rollerna och framförallt hos projektledarna, som inte har någon specifik roll- eller uppdragsbeskrivning. Genom resultatet kunde vi även se att kunskapsöverföringen bör vara ett ingående moment i organisationens projektbeskrivning för att det ska fungera på bästa sätt. Fysiska möten och god kommunikation mellan deltagarna bör även prioriteras för att effektivisera kunskapsöverföringen inom projektet..