Acidification is a central concept in the environmental debate. The effect of acidification of the soil is a matter of a decreasing amount of cations and thereby a decreasing ability to resist a supply of hydrogen ions to the soil. Acidification has gradually increased in the O horizon in Västerbotten over a 30-year period from the 1970th to the 1990th. The aim of this study was from inventories of The Swedish National Forest Soil Survey and The Swedish National Forest Inventory explain and quantify the acidification that has occurred in the O horizon of two regions in the north of Sweden. Data from SMHI, The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, has also been used.

This thesis studies the way valuation of investment properties is conducted in accordance with IAS 40 and how reliable these valuations are. This has been conducted by studying ten Swedish real estate companies listed on the NASDAQ OMX, during the period 2005-2008. The study shows that all companies use valuation models to determine the fair value of investment properties. Two different types of models have been identified. Companies that use the cash flow model show inconsistencies in Time horizon, and how they determine the horizon value.

The aim of the study has been to explore what participation and hope means for persons with disabilities living in an institution called Horizon House, in Stellenbosch South Africa. The aim has also been to discover the South African approach to disability and how Horizon House fits into this approach. Horizon House is an institution and a protective workplace in Stellenbosch for adults whose main impairment is of an intellectual nature but there are also physical and emotional disabilities. Another aim has been to explore the perspectives of the residents. The research questions of the study are: ? What does participation imply for the residents of Horizon House?? What does Hope represent for the residents of Horizon House?? What importance can hope have for people with disabilities, in their approach towards increased participation? We travelled to South Africa during a two week period in March 2009, where we participated at the protective workplace of Horizon House.

Användbarhet är en term som används för att bedöma kvaliteten hos ett gränssnitt. God användbarhet är viktig då den ger en ökad produktivitet och andra affärsfördelar i form av färre misstag och bättre kvalitet på slutprodukten. Användbarhet är en viktig designprincip men är en svår egenskap att uppfylla hos applikationer. Studien behandlar användbarhet ur olika perspektiv, dels det teoretiska genom litteraturgenomgång, dels det praktiska genom intervjuer och observationer. Syftet var att förklara vad användbarhet är, hur det bedöms och vad man kan göra för att bygga in egenskapen i applikationer man utvecklar.

This essay will discuss the Roman God Janus, as a figure of speech, in four different texts written by Publius Ovidius Naso, Michel de Montaigne, Francis Bacon and Elijah Fenton. The Janus figure could also illustrate the relationship between the past, the present and the future, because of the attributes of looking back and forward, in both space and time, that Janus was said to possess. Reinhard Koselleck's ideas of space of experience and horizon of expectation will be used as an analytical approach, thus creating a dual purpose for this essay. On one hand to understand texts about Janus, which implies an understanding of the changes over time associated with the history of ideas of Janus, and on the other the past's importance in relation to the future, which includes an understanding of Janus via Koselleck's thesis about the change in relationship between experience and expectation.The question formulations are as follows: How has the Janus motive changed over time in the researched texts? How can the literary use of Janus show the changed relationship between the space of experience and the horizon of expectation, and in a wider context between the past and the future? Janus has gone from being a physical presence, as the arcs of the Forum Romanum in ancient Rome, to becoming a tool for authors, one that spans many literary rooms.

This paper investigates the possibilities to construct automatized portfolios based on optimizations strategies that could outperform comparable indexes. The study is based on time-series of Swedish stocks dating from 1986 to 2006. In the research four different portfolio optimization techniques were studied. These were: the Classical Markowitz Approach, Mean-Absolute-Deviation, Minimum-Regret and Conditional Value-at-Risk of which the three latter are based on generated scenarios. The behaviour of these models was studied for different choices of parameters such as backward time-horizon and targeted average return.

The aim of this small thesis is to investigate if the probability of business failure is higher at the time of divestment than at the time of acquisition for portfolio companies that have been subject to private equity ownership. The background for this thesis is the widespread critique aimed at private equity firms, claiming that they increase the risk in their portfolio companies. We have performed a study of 53 buyout transactions, involving Swedish manufacturing companies, covering a time span of 13 years, from 1995 to 2007. We find evidence of an increased risk of business failure for the portfolio companies with a short forecasting horizon (within one year). The absolute increase in the sample is however small.

In focus of this study lie students of an upper secondary school in a multicultural district, where more than 60 % of the students fail to reach the national goals for education. Since this particularly exposed group of students receives little attention during my studies in the Special Educational Teacher Programme, I have felt an ever growing urge to examine this group closer. As a basis for this study stands theories on how children and youths, in particular those of immigrant background, need holistic consistency and continuity in order to be able to build a positive development of identity. The purpose of this study is to explore the possibilities of developing parent cooperation in a multicultural district, through finding out what teachers and parents expect and desire from parent cooperation. I also want to find out how parents and teachers think that a working parent cooperation affects the student.

The similarity between the Russian and the Indian, in a Cold War context, may be ambiguous considering the ethnic-social variables and the period in time from where the Indians relate. However, by analyzing these, as well as other, characters in the exhibition of movies, we could learn something about the ideology of the time from which the movies derive.This study examines ideology and movies in the Cold War era and concludes that the Indian, for example, may be representing the values of the common public enemy, originating from the Cold War ideology. The movies examined, regardless of influence of distinct Cold War themes or lack of such themes, carry attributes that give evidence of typical Cold War ideology. The fear of communism and common enemies connected to a Cold War context, the thought of America as the land of the free ? with the horizon in the ending of the movies as metaphoric to freedom ? and the moral rhetoric that connects to the American thought of a duty as a global savior, are all signs of the Cold War ideology.Even though the messages are somewhat clearer and more distinct in the movies with Cold War motifs, the fact that ideology is projected through other movies as well should be considered essential for the continuing study of movies as cultural artefacts..

The aim of this study was to investigate how four families in the Stockholm area reason, what kind of preconception they have and what their horizon of expectations is when they make the choice between sending their children to the profile class of municipal/free schools and sending them to the general classes in those schools. The main research questions asked were:What kind of preconception do the parents have about profile classes?What reasons do the interviewed parents have to send their children to a profile class?What are the interviewed parent?s expectations of the profile class choice?The study is built on qualitative interviews with the parents of the families. The empirical data has been analyzed using a framework of theories drawing on the theory of reproduction, the forms of social capital, the ideas created from the word profile and elite and the horizon of expectations. The results show that the parents of the families have a similar degree of preconception about profile classes.

There has always been global warming on earth and it is because of it that the earth is inhabitable. Without global warming the temperature on earth would be around -18 ° C instead of today's + 15 ° C. Global warming is generated by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane which trap long wave radiation in the earth's atmosphere. The problem today is that the global concentration of green house gases has significantly increased since the 1750's as a result of human activity. Today's values widely exceed the preindustrial values.

The aim of this study was to investigate how four families in the Stockholm area reason, what kind of preconception they have and what their horizon of expectations is when they make the choice between sending their children to the profile class of municipal/free schools and sending them to the general classes in those schools. The main research questions asked were:What kind of preconception do the parents have about profile classes?What reasons do the interviewed parents have to send their children to a profile class?What are the interviewed parent?s expectations of the profile class choice?The study is built on qualitative interviews with the parents of the families. The empirical data has been analyzed using a framework of theories drawing on the theory of reproduction, the forms of social capital, the ideas created from the word profile and elite and the horizon of expectations. The results show that the parents of the families have a similar degree of preconception about profile classes.

Vår studie bygger på artiklarna ”Fads, Martingales and Market efficiency” och ”Volume and Autocovariances in Short-Horizon Individual Security Returns” och är ett replikat av dessa. Studiens syfte är att undersöka förhållandet mellan förändringar i aktieomsättningen och veckoavkastningar för enskilda aktier på Stockholmsbörsen..

AbstractThe dynamic environment means that organizations always faces new challenges. There are various factors which could affect the process of change thus the purpose of this investigation is to research into the key values of organizational changes. We have done an in-depth research about a planned and ongoing process of change in the organization HEM. The aim is to investigate how knowledge and learning are spread among the staff in the company before and during changes. Also further investigation has been made to study the communication between management and employees through the changes. This report includes seven individuals with different working positions within the organization.

Vår studie bygger på artiklarna ?Fads, Martingales and Market efficiency? och ?Volume and Autocovariances in Short-Horizon Individual Security Returns? och är ett replikat av dessa.Studiens syfte är att undersöka förhållandet mellan förändringar i aktieomsättningen och veckoavkastningar för enskilda aktier på Stockholmsbörsen..