The debate on Chinese activities in Africa has so far been polemic and inconclusive. In parallel, the literature on how trade affects institutions has evolved while failing to draw any definite conclusions. By joining the two areas of research, this study seeks to make contributions to two ongoing debates. The study is based on the understanding that entrepreneurs engage in foreign trade, and in a

This paper examines the causal effects of happiness on productivity, using cross sectional time series (panel) data from the UK, spanning the years 1996 to 2008. Innovations in this paper include the use of total compensation instead of wage rates as a proxy for productivity, the use of overall happiness instead of operationalized measures of happiness, and the use of GIS-derived bioclimate variab

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of Rules of Origin (RoO) on the tuna trade in Thailand by comparing the existing trade agreements of two major partners, the EU and Japan. It is widely recognised that RoO affect the outcome of preferential trade agreements (PTA) due to its complicated nature. Thailand is the largest producer of canned tuna in the world and conducts its trade wit

The author of thesis investigated the potential benefits of using of leading indicators in sustainability reporting as a means to reduce risk in the electric utility sector. Leading indicators describe the processes that help to achieve desired results (lagging indicators). The main argument for considering leading indicators built around the concept that sustainability is, to a large extent, abou

Ett reportage om Piratpartiet i Berlin som i september 2011 valts in i delstatsparlamentet och alla kommunfullmäktigen i staden.

This thesis is focused on the lack of investment in the human security of the marginalized Hazara minority of Afghanistan. Human security is a relatively new concept over which there is considerable debate and this thesis presents a discussion of various debates regarding human security and peacekeeping before taking a firm stance in the debates, emphasizing the importance of investing in the huma

How close a computer model comes to recreating real-world phenomena often depends on the value of its internal parameters, but investigating the outcome of the model for every point in parameter space is in practice an impossible task. Here an artificial neural network is used as a numerical predictor on two different system biology computer models. A semi-implicit solver was also implemented for

In the field of quantum optics and its wide variety of applications it is essential to have high brightness sources of entangled photons. In this Bachelor project, the aim has been to produce such a source based on recent experimental setups [1] [2] with a so-called Sagnac interferometer to generate polarization-entangled photons. The source built shows high quality entanglement. High visibility p

Since Markowitz presented the mean-variance model as a way of putting together a financial portfolio, variance has been the established measure of risk. Even though the measures of downside risk hasn’t gained the same attention as variance, it has been used in research for some time. Semivariance, best described as the risk of a portfolio’s return falling below a set target, was introduced as a ri

Abstract The Transtaganolides/Basiliolides (T/B) are C-19 terpenolides found in the plants Thapsia Garganica L., Thapsia Transtagana Brot and Thapsia Villosa var. Villosa L. from the Umbelliferae family. Reports suggest that these compounds have reversible SERCA-inhibiting properties and therefore are of great interest for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkin

In this thesis, different applications and definitions of affirmative action have been investigated and straightened out. The thesis also aims to clarify in what way EU legislation and case law affects the scope of the exemption rule of equal treatment and application of affirmative action. This has been carried out with the help of legal sources including the EU practices and Swedish case law. Th

Arbetsdomstolen har aldrig prövat metodens tillförlitlighet av drogtester och dess betydelse för ett genomförande. När arbetsdomstolen tar ställning till en arbetstagares vägran att underkasta sig ett drogtest görs en avvägning. I avvägningen ställs arbetsgivarens intresse mot individens rätt till sin integritet. Omständigheter som beaktas är bla syftet med testet och testmetoden. Drogtestets tilThe reliability of drug tests and its significance when it comes to the employee´s obligation to take part in a drug test has never been put to trial in the Swedish Labour Court. An adjustment is made as the Labour Court comes to a decision regarding an employee’s refusal to comply to a drug test. In the adjustment the integrity of the individual is put against the employer’s interest. Circumstanc

Edith Södergran är banbrytande för den lyriska modernismen i Norden. Hon föds i S:t Petersburg som tredje generationens invandrare på mödernet, får sin utbildning i denna stad, bor i Raivola på Karelska näset och är medborgare i det ryska storfurstendömet Finland. Uppsatsen undersöker hur den ryska miljön avspeglas i hennes texter. Utifrån modernismen och det moderna, estetisk idealism och den ry

Syftet med denna studie är att försöka skapa en handelsstrategi som går ut på att utnyttja en eventuell contrarian-effekt på stockholmsbörsen. Studien sträcker sig mellan åren 1996-2011 och syftar till att identifiera en eventuell signifikant överavkastning mot aktuellt jämförelseindex. Jag kommer att utnyttja två välkända anomalier i form av januari- och småbolagseffekten. Jag har skapat en likav

Historiskt sett har löneförhandlingarna i Sverige skett på central nivå mellan framförallt LO och SAF. Lönebildningen i Sverige har dock förändrats i grunden efter flera decennier med kraftiga lönekostnadsökningar på grund av bland annat löneglidning och statlig inkomstpolitik vilket bidragit till inflation och problem för den svenska ekonomin. År 2000 instiftades Medlingsinstitutet med uppdraget

Riskkapitalmarknaden kan härledas så långt tillbaka som till 1940-talet då de första private equity-investeringarna genomfördes i USA, och sedan dess har branschens utsträckning ständigt förändrats i takt med det rådande ekonomiska klimatet, både hög- och lågkonjunkturer, och är idag ett starkt etablerat fenomen även i Sverige. Private equity är den investeringsform som inom samlingsbegreppet risThe risk capital market can be traced as far back as the 1940s when the first private equity investment was made in the United States, and since then, the industry has constantly changed along with the current economic climate, and is today a strongly established phenomenon even in Sweden. The term private equity covers all investments that are made in unlisted companies and they typically involv

When diagnosing acute coronary syndrome, time is of the essence and electrocardiography the most effective method to obtain data about the patients condition. Artificial neural networks can here be used to assist medical doctors. In this text the wavelet transform is introduced as a signal processing method for piping ECG-curves to ANN’s. The performance of this setup (ANN performance is measured b

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka och diskutera om the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) är en rättskälla i svensk rätt. Detta görs genom att redogöra för argument för och emot referensramen som svensk rättskälla. Denna fråga är viktig att utreda då det finns skilda meningar om detta bland den svenska juridiska doktrinen. Detta skapar ett osäkert rättsläge som kan ge upphov till osäkerhet infThis thesis deals with the question of whether or not the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) is a source of law in the Swedish legal system. This is done by outlining the arguments for and against the frame of reference as a Swedish law source. This issue is important to investigate because of the disagreement among the swedish judical experts whether it is or not. This legal uncertainty creat

Global disease transmission is an important area, since knowledge of the time of the onset of an epidemic in a region might help authorities to save many lives. In this thesis I have used a deterministic model with eight parameters, of which two were time dependent, for spreading of the SARS disease. My model is an extension of a model by Colizza and co-workers, where I have added a Heaviside step

Vi undersöker strukturen och stabiliteten hos fixpunkter i en modell för transport av auxin. Arbetet bygger vidare p*a tidigare arbeten av Anders Svensson och Patrik Sahlin m.fl. Svensson undersökte 2008 en modell för transport av auxin, den s.k. skalningsmodellen. I detta arbete kompletterar vi dels denna undersökning, och dels så generaliserar vi modellen till två dimensioner och undersöker den