Search

Global warming is a growing problem, and climate changes are now moving toward a state that is greater than usual. Various industries and customers’ needs to change their buying behavior to save our planet. As a key performer in society, the bank sector is evolving and changing towards a greener future. The changes have given birth to the term Green Banking. The new concept can be defined as an umbrella term that refers to the practices that make banks sustainable and green. The concept includes various green products like green bonds, green stocks, green loans, and green mortgages. Various new demands, threats and risks have arisen with the recent changes that stakeholders need to be aware of and be prepared to face. Changes are required in order to help the environment but might not be supported or welcomed by all of the bank’s stakeholders. A difference in view can be problematic for the banks and may affect their attractiveness. This problem or question influenced me to conduct this study.The purpose of this study is to examine the role of Green banking for Swedish banks. Is the concept increasing the bank's attractiveness in terms of customer attractiveness, or is the concept dissatisfying the bank´s customers. Green Banking is a fairly new concept, and little research has been done on this concept in the field of banking. Some studies were found in the field of Green Banking, but only one of them investigated customer attractiveness, and that study was conducted in Bangladesh. Therefore, this study is limited to Sweden and the Swedish bank sector. The four theories, Theory of planned behavior, Ecologically conscious consumer behavior, Diffusion of innovation theory and Cumulative prospect theory, were selected to analyze the study's findings.A qualitative research method was used in this study, and data collection was conducted through interviews. The four Swedish banks, SEB, Swedbank, Länsförsäkringar and Nordea, were selected for the data collection. Besides the collected data were several earlier studies chosen to get an overview of the area.The interviewed banks received the same question, and the answers were overall similar, but some responses differed between the banks. All the interviewed banks have good experiences with the Green Banking concept, and most of the bank's customers are well integrated and find the new concept attractive. The concept has mediated challenges for both the bank and its customers, but increased understanding of the changes makes it easier for the banks and their stakeholders.Based on the findings, the analyzis and the chosen theories did the research came to the conclusion that the Green Banking concept is increasing the attractiveness of the Swedish banks. There are still challenges and obstacles with the concept and probably much more to learn, but the research also suggests that Swedish banks should practise Green Banking. It's not only the eco-friendliness of the concept that is compelling but also to stay attractive on the market.

This systematic literature review investigates the extent to which recent anti-corruption literature goes beyond the established paradigms (i.e., principal-agent perspective, macro-level, structural, and legal centralistic approaches) to focus on society’s informal norms, everyday micro-level power relations and non-monetary currencies (e.g. respect, prestige, social status and trust). By reconceptualising the various meanings and morality of informal, non-legal practices and transactions in the frame of the ’multi-level orders of corruption’ perspective, the paper also assesses the extent to which the current canon focuses on the complex articulation and interdependencies between (1) global, transnational anti-corruption laws, initiatives, discourses, and institutions, (2) national/central level initiatives, policies, and laws, and (3) local, micro-level social norms and practices. Based on one-hundred and three systematically gathered peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2015 and 2020, we found that most studies conducted within this period focus on anti-corruption at the national level and mostly employ analytical and quantitative methods. However, the local level received scant attention, and qualitative methods were employed in a few studies. Also, even though a significant number of studies focus on anti-corruption at multiple levels, these are mostly either the global-national level or national-local level. None of the articles gathered for this review studies anti-corruption in a complete multi-level approach that explores the global-national-local level. Lastly, we found that most of the studies across the levels are shaped by the principal-agent perspective and indicate a predominance of the perspective within anti-corruption policy and practice across the world. Consequently, irrespective of the entity of focus (i.e., country or institution), method (quantitative, qualitative, analytical or experimental) or level of analysis (i.e., global, national, or local or multi-level), most of the studies attribute the ineffectiveness of anti-corruption interventions to the inability of ”principals” to be principled, and hence call for increased sanctioning, supervision, monitoring and political commitment towards combatting corruption. Thus, there is the need for more qualitative anti-corruption studies at the local level and alternative theoretical perspectives that go beyond the aforementioned established paradigms.

Bakgrund: Modeföretag kommunicerar alltmer om hållbarhet. En kanal för denna typ av kommunikation har blivit deras webbsidor under fliken “hållbarhet”. Tidigare forskning visar att det finns svårigheter för konsumenterna att tolka innehållet som finns på sidorna, vilket leder till att konsumenterna tolkar innehållet fritt. Tidigare studier på tolkningar av modeföretags hållbarhetskommunikation saknar fokus på konsumentperspektivet och på det övergripande innehåll som kommuniceras via hållbarhetssidorna. I denna studie undersöker vi konsumenternas tolkningar och identifierar vad de bakomliggande aspekterna för tolkningarna är. Syfte: Studiens resultat syftar till att bidra med förståelse för hur konsumenter förstår och tolkar hållbarhetssidor. Resultatet ska kunna användas av intressenter inom modebranschen för att förbättra sin hållbarhetskommunikation. Det genom att granska konsumenternas tolkningar av svenska modeföretags hållbarhetssidor. Teori: Teorin är uppbyggd med en teoretisk referensram som utgår från hållbarhetskommunikation och konsumenttolkning med den tillämpade teoretiska utgångspunkten diskursanalys. Detta för att undersöka diskurser som uppstår mellan konsumenterna och innehållet från hållbarhetssidorna. Metod: Metoden som användes i studien var en kvalitativ metod, vilket var intervjuer med tio deltagare från Sverige. Deltagarna fick observera två modeföretags hållbarhetssidor. Före, under och efter observationerna intervjuades deltagarna. Efter varje intervju transkriberades materialet. Efter att allt transkriberats, reducerades materialet genom att koda in citat i olika kategorier. Resultat: Resultatet utgick från en diskursanalys och visade på tre olika nivåer när det handlar om konsumenternas tolkningar. Första nivån visade vad aspekterna är för att förstå och engageras av kommunikationen. Andra nivån visade hur konsumenterna översätter kommunikationen till ett användande i praktiken. Den tredje nivån visade en helhetsförståelse över hur konsumenterna ifrågasätter och värderar hållbarhetskommunikationen. Helhetsperspektivet visualiseras och refereras utifrån en tolkningsprocess. Diskussion: Diskussionen utförs genom att presentera de bidrag som framkommer från studien. Det första bidraget är en modell som redogör för hur konsumenternas tolkningsprocess ser ut vid tolkning av hållbarhetskommunikationen. Andra bidraget visar på konsumenternas inställning till de tjänster som modeföretagen erbjuder, som kan bidra till en hållbar konsumtion. Till sist visar bidrag tre att konsumenterna värdesätter hållbarhetskommunikationen även om det finns brister i den. Slutsats: Studiens huvudsakliga slutsats är att kommunikationen på hållbarhetssidorna ifrågasätts av konsumenterna. Det finns brister i kommunikationen men trots det skapar sig konsumenterna en ny uppfattning om företagen efter att besökt modeföretagens hållbarhetssidor. Det är inte ett naturligt steg för konsumenterna att besöka sidorna men resultatet av att besöka en hållbarhetssida ger en vidgad syn när det handlar om modebranschens hållbarhetsarbete. Background: Fashion companies are increasingly communicating about sustainability. A channel for this type of communication have become their webpages, where they have created a page called “sustainability”. Prior research shows that these pages' content is hard to interpret for consumers, which leads to consumers interpreting its content freely. Prior research on interpretations of fashion companies’ sustainability communication lacks a focus on the consumer perspective and on the overall content communicated through sustainability pages. In this study we research the consumer interpretations and identify what the underlying aspects of their interpretations are. Purpose: This study's results aim to contribute to an understanding of how consumers understand and interpret sustainability pages, which aim to be used by stakeholders within the fashion industry to improve their sustainability communication. This will be done by examining consumers' interpretations of Swedish fashion companies’ sustainability pages. Theory: The theoretical framework used in this study outlines sustainability communications and consumer interpretations with an adapted theoretical starting point from discursive analysis. This is used to examine discourses that arise between consumers and the content of the sustainability pages. Method: The method used in this study was a qualitative method, which was interviews with ten participants from Sweden. The participants were allowed to observe two fashion companies' sustainability pages. While and after the observations the participants were interviewed. After each interview the material was transcribed. After all interviews were transcribed, the material was reduced by encoding quotes into categories. Findings: The results were drawn from the discursive analysis and showed three levels of how the consumer interprets. First level showed the aspects of understanding and being engaged by the communication. The second level showed how consumers translated the communication to a practical use. The third level showed a holistic understanding on how consumers value and question sustainability communication. The holistic understanding is visualized and referenced as the interpretation process. Discussion: The discussion is conducted by presenting the managerial implications of the study. The first contribution is a model that accounts for how the consumer's interpretation process is structured when interpreting sustainability communication. The second contribution showed the consumer's outlook on services offered by the fashion companies, which can contribute to a sustainable consumption. At last, the third contribution showed how consumers value sustainability even if its deficiency. Conclusion: The main conclusion from the study was that consumers question the communication on sustainability pages. The study showed that there are deficiencies within the communication, however the communication still gives the consumers a new perception of the companies. Consumers do not naturally seek to read the sustainability pages, but our results showed that the reading of the pages widens consumers' perception of what working with sustainability entails for fashion companies. This thesis is written in Swedish.

Previous scholars have viewed expenditures on ESG (environmental, social, governance) in two distinct ways. In one way, it has been viewed as wasteful if it does not directly contribute to the business. The other perspective being that by addressing ESG-issues, one can improve businesses by improving society. In recent times, ESG has become an increasingly common topic due to the increased awareness and debates regarding the environment and sustainability. The increased attention toward ESG issues has resulted in increased ESG reporting by firms. As a result, shareholders and stakeholders can address more of their concerns by knowing how ESG-friendly a firm is. With the increased attention given to ESG in recent years, its actual effects on a firm becomes increasingly interesting. The relationship between ESG and firm performance and the relationship between ESG and stock return has been studied by several researchers over the years. The different studies have come to different conclusions regarding these relationships and the relationships are still inconsistent. In this paper, the relationship between ESG-scores and firm performance, as well as ESG-scores and stock returns in Swedish large-cap firms is examined. This study aims to investigate the relationship between ESG-scores and firm performance and the relationship between ESG-scores and stock returns. Furthermore, the study measures firm performance by measuring total asset turnover, net profit margin, and operating profit margin. Stock returns are measured with the use of historical yearly stock returns. The relationships are investigated with regression analysis. This study has a quantitative approach, where secondary data between the years 2016-2020 has been extracted from the database Refinitiv Eikon. The study finds that the relationship between ESG-scores and total asset turnover is negative, meaning that increased ESG-scores result in less efficient use of assets. The relationship between ESG-score and net profit margin is insignificant, and no conclusion can be drawn from that relationship. The relationship between ESG-scores and operating profit margin is positive, meaning that customers are willing to pay more for a firm's sustainable practices. The relationship between ESG-scores and stock returns is insignificantly negative; thus, we cannot draw any conclusions regarding the relationship, but it could indicate that ESG-scores are accounted for in the stock price.

This policy brief looks into the role of social norms to fight corruption in the school system in the Cau Giay district in Hanoi. An ongoing research project has conducted multiple ethnographic field studies in schools and included parents, teachers, and other school personnel in the research data. Their experiences and reflections are the core of this brief. The results show the existence of informal transactions to ensure good care and schools results backed up on social norms such as the celebration of national holidays throughout the school year, but also exist on an everyday basis with the practices of home teaching, and the recruitment of new teachers to schools. By applying a socio-legal anti-corruption perspective to the findings, we suggest a list of actions that could be implemented by local school administrators and headmasters to ensure that no child experiences corruption nor the impact of corruption on his/her schooling. Projekt finansierat av ICLD

Halal tourism is a global and comprehensive market niche within the tourism industry that has increased significantly in recent years and is expected to continue doing so in the future. Many countries see the economic opportunities and want to claim their position on the market. The following study is the second one that has been performed in Sweden about halal tourism, whose purpose was to gather an understanding about the attitudes that people with leading roles within Swedish hotel operations have towards developing and marketing Sweden as a possible destination for halal tourism. An additional purpose of the following study has been to gather knowledge about their perceptions about applying modified versions of halal tourism: Muslim-Friendly and options. In order to reach a deeper understanding of the subject some theories on culture and values were applied. The methodological approach in the study has been a combination of quantitative and qualitative, consisting of a survey with open and closed questions which generated 62 survey answers, as well as five follow-up interviews. The main result showed that the respondents had low knowledge about the issue and remained generally negative towards development of a complete halal or Muslim-Friendly concept in their hotels. The concepts consist of detailed requirements that are challenging to follow, and the result shows that most of the respondents believe that parts of it clash with Swedish values about equality. But as the result indicates, a vast majority of the respondents are more positive to the concept of options.

I denna C-uppsats med fördjupning företagsekonomi, har förhållandet mellan Sveriges bostadspriser och aktieindex studerats. Vidare undersökts huruvida bankernas utlåning och Sveriges ekonomiska tillväxt kan komma att fungera som en indikator på OMXS30. I uppsatsen diskuteras metodval och en presentation genomförs av diverse teorier som kan ligga till grund för analysen. Dessutom sammanfattas tidigare studier inom detta område och resultaten analyseras. Denna studie är begränsad till att analysera kvartalsvis data med ett tidsintervall på 23 år, från 1996 till 2019 i Sverige. Författarna ämnade att studera kvartalsvis data för att undersöka förekomsten av trender. Dessa trender kan sedan komma att nyttjas av framtida investerare. Data har analyserats i en korrelationsanalys och i en multipel linjär regressionsanalys. Resultaten visar att det på lång sikt finns en positiv korrelation mellan variablerna “bostadspriser” och “OMXS30”, dock visar resultaten också att sambandet mellan variablerna är negativt, det vill säga att när bostadspriserna ökar, minskar aktieindexet i värde. Bostadspriserna och OMXS30 långsiktiga korrelation kan förklaras av variablerna “bankernas utlåning” och “den ekonomiska tillväxten”, som i stor utsträckning har en positiv inverkan på OMXS30. Resultaten visar även på att det finns en långsiktig positiv korrelation mellan variablerna “bankernas utlåning” och “aktieindexet” enligt studiens korrelations- analys. Dock är sambandet negativt mellan variablerna “bankernas utlåning” och “aktieindexet”, enligt den multipla linjära regressionsanalysen. Utfallet innebär att en ökad bankutlåning, leder till att OMXS30 minskar i värde. Den ekonomiska tillväxten har däremot ett positivt signifikant samband med OMXS30, enligt korrelationsanalysen och den multipla regressionsanalysen. In this bachelor thesis in business economy, the relationship between the Swedish stock market and real estate prices has been studied. Further an examination was conducted on whether bank lending and the economic growth in Sweden may act as an indicator on OMXS30. The thesis holds a discussion regarding the method of choice, a presentation of the chosen theories that could be used as a foundation for the analysis. Besides that, a summary is conducted on earlier studies on this field and an analysis based on the results was made. This study is limited to analyse quarterly data with a time interval on 23 years, between the years 1996 and 2019 in Sweden. Quarterly data was chosen in order to investigate the presence of different trends, which future investors could use. The data was analysed using a correlation analysis as well as a multiple regression analysis. The result showed an existence of a positive correlation between the variables “real estate prices” and “OMXS30” in the long run, but the result also shows a negative connection which means that a rise in real estate prices will result in a price fall on OMXS30. The long run correlation between real estate prices and OMXS3, can be explained by the variables “bank lending” and “economic growth”, with to a large extent har a positive impact on the OMXS30. The result also show evidence of the existence of positive correlation between bank lending and OMXS30 in the long run, but the connection is negative which means that a rise of bank lending will result in a fall on OMXS30. Contrariwise, according to both the regression and the correlation analysis, there is evidence of a positive significant connection between the economic growth and OMXS30.

The durability of metal-based constructions, especially those containing reinforced concrete, is mainly limited by corrosion processes. Diamond-like carbon (DLC)-coated silicon (Si) wafers provide a chemically inert and mechanically robust sensing interface for application in aggressive environments. In this study, iron-sensitive dyes, i.e., 2,3-dihydroxypyridine (DHP) and 1,2-dihydroxybenzol (DHB), were coated onto DLC-modified Si wafers for evaluating the potential of detecting corrosion processes via evanescent field absorption spectroscopy using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The obtained IR spectra reveal discernible changes of the dye layer after exposure to iron solutions, which indicates that indeed corrosion processes may be studied at molecular level detail., publishedVersion

Non

Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka om en goodwillnedskrivning har något samband med framtida kassaflöde. Metod: I studien har en multipel regressionsanalys utförts, som är inspirerad av en tidigare studie av Jarva (2009). Vi har använt oss av en kvantitativ metod med deduktiv ansats och med hjälp av insamlade data från Retriver och Börsdata.se, har vi undersökt om det finns något samband mellan goodwillnedskrivningar och framtida kassaflöde. Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet är uppdelat i två olika modeller. I den ena har vi delat in bolagen i storleksordning baserat på omsättningsstorlek. I den andra har vi delat in bolagen med antalet anställda enligt SME. I båda analyserna hittar vi samband mellan framtida kassaflöde och avskrivningar. Där avskrivningar används som en proxy för goodwillnedskrivningar. Det i motsats till vad Jarva (2009) kom fram till i sin studie. Där han endast kunde hitta samband i upp till tre år efter nedskrivningen. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine whether a goodwill impairment has any relation with the future cash flow Method: The study has performed a multiple regression analysis, which is inspired by a previous study by Jarva (2009). We have used a quantitative method with deductive approach and with the help of collected data from Retriever and Börsdata.se have we examined whether there is any relation between goodwill impairment and future cash flow. Result and conclusion: The result is divided in two different models. In one, we have divided the companies into orders of magnitude with turnover as a variable. In the second, we have divided the companies with the number of employees as a variable. In both analyzes, we find relationships between future cash flow and deprecation. Where deprecation is used as a proxy for goodwill impairments. This is in contrast to what Jarva (2009) came up with in his study. Where he could only find connections for up to three years after the impairment.

Spectrally selective nanocoatings that exhibit synergistically enhanced solar light modulation, luminous transmittance and catalytic properties can be made by combining dielectric film stacks with complementary optical and structural properties. Here we show two case studies: 1)TiO2/VO2 luminous transparent bilayers that exhibits enhanced near-infrared light absorption and heats the TiO2 film by up to ~ 30°C resulting in ~ 2-fold increase of the photocatalytic reaction rate. The TiO2/VO2 bilayer stack exhibits anti-reflective properties, and enhanced solar light modulation (∼ 9%) compared to VO2, and ∼ 20 times% increased solar absorptance compared to TiO2. In addition the TiO2 chemically protects the VO2 layer avoiding oxidation to vanadium pentoxide. 2)TiO2/TiAlN solar absorber bilayers that yield an almost ~ 10-fold enhancement of the quantum yield for acetaldehyde removal (on par with state-of-the-art, heterojunction photocatalysts), and an associated temperature rise ~120 °C.

TiO2 based photocatalysis is a green nanotechnology that can be used for removal of pollutants from water and air, as well as making synthetic fuels from water and carbon dioxide. Said photocatalysis has received major research interests during the last decades. Despite these efforts, many elementary processes that occur on the photocatalyst surface are not fully understood and, therefore, limit our ability to purposefully manufacture more efficient photocatalytic materials. The objective of this thesis is to provide new understanding at a molecular level of important adsorbate species on the TiO2 surfaces. Fundamental properties of adsorption and photochemistry of primarily formic acid on different TiO2 surfaces, ranging from single crystals to nanoparticles, have been studied using infrared spectroscopy. A method to simulate IR spectra have been developed and, combined with experimental data, has been proven to be a powerful tool to identify different adsorbate geometries on the surface. In the presence of oxygen, a thermally activated and irreversible reaction between formate and oxygen adatoms takes place on the single crystal rutile (110) surface to yield hydrogen bicarbonate surface complexes. For disordered single crystal surfaces, the adsorption geometry of formate changes due to exposure of Ti3+ atoms on the surface, and the adsorption spectra shows resemblances with that observed for formate adsorption on nanocrystalline surfaces. Illumination with UV light results in small changes of the formate coverage on the disordered single crystal and nanocrystalline rutile surfaces, whereas on the rutile (110) surface only miniscule changes in formate coverages are seen. This is due to the lack of oxygen electron acceptors and OH/H2O electron donors in the vacuum environment, which results in a much lower degradation rate compared to measurements made at ambient conditions. Furthermore, it is shown that the coordination of the formate molecule on various TiO2 surfaces has a profound effect on the photocatalytic degradation rate, with bidentate coordinated formate molecules being most resilient towards oxidation. The results presented here shows that additional insight in the processes on the TiO2 photocatalyst surface can be obtained by combining spectroscopic studies of single crystals and nanocrystalline films and that it is possible to unravel adsorption geometries on surfaces by combining experimental and simulated IR spectra.

Pan-specific prediction of receptor–ligand interaction is conventionally done using machine-learning methods that integrates information about both receptor and ligand primary sequences. To achieve optimal performance using machine learning, dealing with overfitting and data redundancy is critical. Most often so-called ligand clustering methods have been used to deal with these issues in the context of pan-specific receptor–ligand predictions, and the MHC system the approach has proven highly effective for extrapolating information from a limited set of receptors with well characterized binding motifs, to others with no or very limited experimental characterization. The success of this approach has however proven to depend strongly on the similarity of the query molecule to the molecules with characterized specificity using in the machine-learning process. Here, we outline an alternative strategy with the aim of altering this and construct data sets optimal for training of pan-specific receptor–ligand predictions focusing on receptor similarity rather than ligand similarity. We show that this receptor clustering method consistently in benchmarks covering affinity predictions, MHC ligand and MHC epitope identification perform better than the conventional ligand clustering method on the alleles with remote similarity to the training set. Fil: Mattsson, Andreas Holm. Technical University of Denmark; Dinamarca. Evaxion Biotech; Dinamarca Fil: Kringelum, J.V.. Evaxion Biotech; Dinamarca Fil: Garde, C.. Universidad de Copenhagen; Dinamarca Fil: Nielsen, Morten. Technical University of Denmark; Dinamarca. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas; Argentina

Background Todays guidelines for advanced CPR emphasize chest compressions with good quality and early defibrillation. Prehospital CPR performed by ambulance crew, an automated external defibrillator (AED) is used. The AED analyzes the heart rhythm and the performer is following the advice to chock the heart or not, given by the AED. During on-going CPR there are sequences when no chest compression is performed known as hands-off time. Hands-off time includes the time for the AED to analyze the heart rhythm and the time when advice is given to the crew. Studies show that prolonged hands-off time has a negative impact on survival after a sudden cardiac arrest. Purpose The purpose with this study was to look into if the hands-off time could decrease with use of manual mode on the defibrillator by the ambulance crew. The crew had to analyze, make a decision to chock or not, charge the defibrillator and give the chock if appropriate. Furthermore, the crews’ knowledge in analyzing heart rhythms that can be defibrillate was investigated. Method A quasi-experimental method was used. 38 participants, all ambulance crew, were included in the study. The participants were randomized into two groups. One group performed CPR with an AED, the second group used the manual mode on the defibrillator. The study data were processed in SPSS. Results The time preceding the first defibrillation was significant shorter in the group using manual mode. There was no difference in total hands-off time between the two groups. All heart rhythms were interpreted right and all defibrillation were done correctly. Conclusions Time from establish cardiac arrest to first defibrillation was significant shorter in manual mode. Furthermore, all heart rhythms were interpreted right and all defibrillation were done correctly. Time from first defibrillation to start of chest compressions was equal in the two groups. There were no significant differences in hands-off time between the two groups. Keyword: ambulance, cardiac arrest, automatic external defibrillator, manual defibrillator, manual rhythm analyze, hands-off time

The purpose of this thesis has been to examine how cultural differences influence post-acquisition organizational change when there is an acquisition between two countries, in this case, the United Kingdom and Sweden. The study followed a qualitative research method. This is to get a deep insight into the company's actions of how they assimilate and adapt to the new country and culture. The theoretical basis implies mainly acquisitions, culture, integration and organizational change. Furthermore, in the empirical part introduces one case company from the United Kingdom whose acquiring a Swedish company; how they have adapted to each other, how the cultural differences have influenced each other and how integration has proceeded. The analysis combines our theoretical framework with the collection of empirical data, which they put against each other in a discussion of how well the theory is consistent with empirical data. It also analyzes the context and differences between theory, empirical evidence and case companies' experiences from how the acquisition was formed. This is in order to find patterns showing how employees from lower to higher ranks within the company perceive the acquisition from a Swedish to a British company. The analysis leads to the conclusion that when the British company takes over a Swedish organization, extreme amount of changes need to be done. The British company culture is reflected by the national culture where financial profits are more important than the personal relationships that Swedes highly value. It is possible to deal with cultural differences if one is aware of their existence, even between countries where the cultural distance is extremely significant.

TiO2 based photocatalysis is an emerging green nanotechnology that can be used forremoval of pollutants from water and air. It has had an increased research interest, bothfrom an application and fundamental point of view, during the last decades. Despite thismany elementary processes that occur on the photocatalyst surface are not fullyunderstood and are thus limiting our ability to purposefully manufacture more efficientphotocatalytic materials.In this licentiate thesis, the adsorption geometry and photodecomposition of formicacid on differently prepared rutile TiO2 (110) surfaces were investigated. The surface wasprepared by repeated cycles of Argon ion sputtering and annealing. By modifying thisprocedure either reduced, stoichiometric or oxylated surfaces have been obtained. Thesedifferent surfaces are all well-ordered as evident from the obtained low energy electrondiffraction pattern. In addition, a totally disordered surface was also prepared by Argonsputtering alone. Grazing incidence infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS)employing polarized light with different azimuthal orientations of the TiO2 single crystalwas used to investigate the binding geometry of formic acid (HCOOH) on the surface.Upon adsorption of formic acid on the TiO2 surface, the molecule is deprotonatedresulting in a formate (HCOO-) and a hydrogen (H+) molecule on the surface. The formatemolecules are mainly bridge-bonded to the Ti5c surface atoms with their molecular axisalong the [001] direction. A minority of the formate species was found to adsorb throughhydroxylated oxygen vacancies (or protonated oxygen atoms) and therefore have differentorientations on the surface. For the disordered surface, it was found that the orientation ofthe formate adsorbates are more or less random since no changes in the IRRAS spectraare seen for the different directions of the single crystal. The adsorption geometry for thedisordered surface is also changed, as seen in the shift of the peak positions in the IRRASspectra. This changed adsorption geometry is attributed to exposures of Ti3+ atoms on thesurface, and is a result of the Ar ion sputtering.Irradiation of the HCOO/TiO2 systems by UV light (365 nm, 2 mW/cm2) showed onlya small change in formate coverage after 100 minutes of illumination. The decrease waslargest on the disordered surface and miniscule on the ordered surface. These results werecompared with those obtained on rutile nanoparticles at ambient conditions. Thecomparison shows that the adsorption geometry for the nanoparticles is similar to that ofthe ordered single crystal surfaces and that the photodecomposition rate is about a factorof 30 higher on the nanoparticles than on the disordered surface. This difference isexpected as the single crystal experiments were performed in vacuum, where the supplyof O2 electron acceptors and OH/H2O donors from the gas phase is limited.These results shows that the rutile TiO2 (110) surface is a good model system forfundamental studies of nanoparticle systems and that the presence of hydroxylated oxygenvacancies and protonated oxygen atoms are important for the reactivity of the TiO2surface and must be included in the description of surface reactions on rutile surfaces.

EU GRINDOOR

Det finns idag två olika sorters ingenjörkompanier, hjulgående och bandgående. Skillnaderna mellan dessa är minimala sett till organisationen, men stora sett till terrängframkomligheten. Kravet är dock det samma vad avser möjligheterna att minera. Trots avvecklade hjälpmedel står kravet fast vid att ingenjörkompanierna skall kunna minera 300 nedgrävda alternativt 600 ytlagda stridsvagnsminor per timme. Detta oaktat tid på dygnet, i alla svenska klimat samt oavsett vilken terräng. Syftet med uppsatsen är att se om ingenjörkompanierna har möjlighet att nå upp till kravet vad avser minering, kopplat mot den materiel som finns på förbanden. Sammanfattningsvis går det att se att kravet som finns ställt på förbanden saknar ramverk, vilket gör att kravet går att tolka på flertalet olika sätt. Det går även att konstatera att det finns flertalet scenarion där kravet inte uppfylls, samt att oaktat scenario är förmågan skydd starkt eftersatt. Kravet tar inte hänsyn till vilken plattform ingenjörkompanierna nyttjar sig av, vilket medför att i terräng där pansarterrängbilar inte kan köra, kan kravet inte heller uppnås, sett till förmågan att frakta materiel.

Bakgrund: En del forskning utförd på, bland annat, den stora amerikanska aktiemarknaden, antyder att det inte finns någon mening med att följa aktieanalyser, varken fundamentala- eller tekniska analyser. Anledningen är den stora mängd information som finns att hämta om bolagen. Denna information gör att marknaden redan prisat in det i aktiekursen. Börsveckan är en aktietidning som gör analyser på börsnoterade bolag i Sverige och övriga nordiska länder. Den avkastning som redovisas i Börsveckan är alltid mycket imponerande i jämförelse med OMXSPI. Syfte: Studien syftar till att se hur stor överavkastning som är möjlig om investerare väljer att följa Börsveckan. Studien undersöker om det existerar en överreaktion vid dessa analyser som gör att det finns en bättre investeringspunkt än publiceringsdagen. Det testas även om det finns relevans bakom den effektiva marknadshypotesen på den mindre svenska aktiemarknaden. Metod: En kvantitativ analys av 512 köprekommendationer och fem säsonger av börsportföljen genomförs. Med data hämtade från Yahoo! Finance samt Avanzas databaser. Den samlade avkastningen jämförs med OMXSPI för att få en bild av hur effektiv marknaden är. Aktiekursen hos de rekommenderade aktierna granskas två börsdagar innan, fram till en vecka efter publicering. Detta görs för att undersöka om investerare överreagerar på nyheten och det finns ett bättre investeringstillfälle. Börsveckans avkastning jämförs med verklig avkastning för att se om överavkastning kan uppstå av rekommendationerna även för investerare som väljer att följa Börsveckan. Resultat: Den verkliga avkastningen för investerarna låg alltid under börsveckans redovisade avkastning. Detta beror på att publicering av rekommendationerna gör att aktiekursen går upp. Börsveckan räknar inte med denna effekt då köpkursen i tidningen beräknas som torsdagen veckan innan publicering. Det blir under den första veckan en överreaktion som leder till att aktiekursen tillfälligt går upp. Analysen av rekommendationerna visar att överavkastning gentemot OMXSPI generellt inte kan uppnås genom att följa Börsveckans köprekommendationer.

Mattsson, A (2006). Distansundervisning i svenska grundskolor i utlandet – handledares, lärares och elevers syn på distansundervisning för elever i behov av särskilt stöd. (Distance education in Swedish compulsory schools abroad – tutors, teachers and students view on distance education for students with special needs.) Skolutveckling och ledarskap, Specialpedagogisk påbyggnadsutbildning, Lärarutbildningen, Malmö högskola.Avsikten med undersökningen är att undersöka lärares och handledares uppfattningar om distansundervisning för elever i behov av särskilt stöd samt att undersöka några elevers uppfattningar om distansstudier.Denna studie bygger på en enkätundersökning bland handledare och distansundervisande lärare samt ett antal intervjuer med distansstuderande grundskoleelever i svenska utlandsskolor. Undersökningen visar att distansundervisning innebär särskilda svårigheter för elever i behov av särskilt stöd men även att distansundervisningen medför arbetssätt som på olika sätt underlättar för dessa elever. Svårigheter i form av asynkron kommunikation, omfattande textmassor och ett ovant studiesätt hanteras med hjälp av extra lärarstöd, goda relationer mellan lärare, handledare och elever samt en rad kompensatoriska insatser.