Banks represent one of the most important parts of the economy in the world. As a result, decisions of bank management affect not just the direct bank stakeholders but the state of the economy and society as a whole. This became evident during the latest financial crisis in 2007 where the failure of one bank resulted in the domino falling that affected banks globally. The regulators increase their attention to the risks that bank face and their measures and requirements. Therefore, the research within the banking area has important consequences from both theoretical and practical side.   The purpose of this project is to investigate whether there is a relationship between dividends that Nordic banks pay and different types of risks such as market, credit (including default), liquidity and operational. The results of the research will contribute to the knowledge in finance and help different stakeholders to understand possible reasons for different dividends level.   The methodological position works as a foundation for the conduction of the research. The epistemological and ontological views applied in this project are positivism and objectivism. The deductive research approach and quantitative research strategy are used for the research and thus the collection and analysis of the archival data of 19 Nordic banks over five year time horizon. The research can therefore be described as a panel study.   Based on the previous research papers the following proxies for risks have been used in the research: market risk – capital requirement for market risk to total assets, credit risk – loan loss provisions to total assets, default risk – Altman Z-score, liquidity risk –liquidity coverage ratio, operational risk – economic capital (capital requirement) for operational risk to total asset.   Ordinary Least Square regression analysis is performed over the collected data in order to fulfil the purpose of the project. The tests results identify that there are no statistically significant relationship between dividends and market, credit, default and liquidity risks and the statistically significant negative relationship between the dividends and operational risk in Nordic banks. These findings contribute to a new knowledge within the finance and banking area in particular. Additionally, this project might be used as a foundation for the further research within the field. The findings are also useful for stakeholders in understanding banks risk level.

There are no set guidelines on how to interpret the criteria’s in the adjustment rule within the meaning of the companies act. The criteria’s are not discussed in literature and the Swedish case law in this area is very limited. A reason for the limited use of the adjustment rule is the slow and very costly process, which does not grantee the outcome of the case. Because of the lack of case law regarding damages and the adjustment rule it has not been up for discussion. The responsibility of a CEO or member of the board is a very central part in a working company. The rules for damages must therefore work as an incitement for a member of the board or CEO to show care and make decisions the very best of interest of the company. All types of companies involve some form of risk taking. The rules within the companies act shall not discourage the board or CEO to make well calculated decisions that in the end can become a loss-making deal. The adjustment rule in the companies act is written in very general terms. This is because of the large type of situations that can occur in a company. Sweden’s and the rest of Scandinavia’s legal systems are very much alike. To try and understand how the adjustment rule is supposed to be processed; a comparison is going to be made with another Nordic country’s equivalent rule, in this case Denmark. This can shed more light on how to interpret the adjustment rule within the meaning of the companies act, and if there are any differences between the two countries in the usage of this rule. If there are any differences, is the difference more beneficial seen to the person who has caused the damage? There are only minor differences between the two countries and the usage of the rule. However these differences can be seen at more beneficial to the person who has inflicted the damage, when using Denmark’s adjustment rule.

Community power is an alternative to the fossil-fuelled, centralized approach to electricity generation. Typically, community power involves low-carbon or renewable forms of electricity generation developed in relatively small generation facilities distributed geographically, entirely or in part owned by the local community. Community power has been found to improve the efficiency of energy systems by decreasing transmission losses and making better use of the heat by-product. Other benefits include increased community acceptance of renewable energy technologies, expedited deployment of renewable technologies, and rural economic development. This study identified how the Canadian province of Nova Scotia could develop a viable community power sector by learning from leaders in the field, namely Denmark and Ontario. Case studies of these leading jurisdictions were developed through literature reviews and interviews with key informants. Next, the conditions for success for community management of common pool resources were compared to the case studies to draw parallels between conditions for success in community power sectors in Denmark and Ontario. It was found that many of the conditions for successful community management of common pool resources were similar to those that realized viable community power sectors with the exception of ‘the relationship between the resource system and institutional arrangements.’ The conditions fell under the themes of: ‘resource system characteristics;’ ‘group characteristics;’ ‘the relationship between resource system and group characteristics;’ ‘institutional arrangements;’ and ‘the external environment.’ At the time of study, Nova Scotia was taking the initial steps to creating a community power sector. By way of interviews with key informants in the province, barriers to a viable community power sector were identified. Next, drawing from the experiences of the Denmark and Ontario, methods to overcome the barriers were identified. Recommendations for the Nova Scotia Departments of Energy, the Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism, the Department of Natural Resources, CEDIF businesses, municipalities, renewable power proponents, and academic institutions were concluded from this study. The recommended path will enable a successful community power sector in Nova Scotia, which will in turn help achieve the provincial renewable electricity targets, enable a more stable and efficient energy system, and increase economic prosperity, particularly in rural communities. The recommendations are specific to Nova Scotia, although they may inform steps to successful community power sectors in similar jurisdictions.

The aim of this thesis has been to: 1) assess the state of pollution in the two study areas and relate them to recent changes found in the Kattegat - Belt Sea area; 2) examine the observed spatial and temporal variability in species composition, abundance and biomass in Arhus Bay and the Formes area and relate the variability to antropogenic and natural causes; 3) discuss and assess methods, particularly for the estimation of secondary production and the use of multivariate analyses as methods for examining changes in macrozoobenthic communities. Macrozoobenthos were sampled at 15 stations in Arhus Bay, Denmark from 1985 to 1991 while data from Formes (reference area) included 55 sampling stations from 1986 to 1990. Monthly sampling took place at one station in Arhus Bay in 1990 and 1991. The two study areas are both situated on the eastcoast of Jutland in the Kattegat - Belt Sea area at 13-17 m depth and both receive waste water from long sea outfalls. Although both areas are Subjected to salinity stratification for most of the year, the exposed position of the Formes area on the open Kattegat coast prevents it from suffering from severe oxygen deficiencies, unlike the Arhus Bay which is a sheltered, semi-enclosed sedimentation area where oxygen concentrations in the bottom water can be very low. At Formes the sediment is sandy while it is silty in Arhus Bay. The spatial and temporal variability in the benthos in Arhus Bay could to a great extent be explained by the variation in 7 important species: Abra alba, Corbula gibba, Mysella bidentata, Nepthys hombergii, N. ciliata, Ophiura albida and Echinocardium cordatum. The fluctuations in the number and biomass of A. alba had a pronounced effect on the total abundance and biomass in Arhus Bay. The severe winter of 1986/87 with low temperatures and oxygen depletion under the ice cover practically eliminated A. alba from the bay. A. alba quickly recolonized the area and was found in high numbers in 1988. Studies of growth of A. alba in 1990 and 1991 showed that by the end of 1990 the population had reached an average length of 10 mm while the average shell length was only 5 mm by the end of 1991. The difference between the two years could be attributed to the difference in sedimentation of phytoplankton from the water column. As in other parts of the Kattegat - Belt Sea area, Arhus Bay has experienced low oxygen concentrations in the bottom water in late summer early autumn throughout the 1980s. Only the oxygen depletion under the ice cover in early spring 1987 and the local oxygen deficiencies south of the outlet in 1989 and 1990 actually killed parts of the benthic fauna. Apart from 1981, the oxygen deficiencies have thus been less severe in Arhus Bay than in other parts of the southern Kattegat in the 1980s. The number of species, abundance and biomass decreased at Fornres from 1980 to 1985 while the discharge of BOD was fairly constant during the same period. From 1986 there was a slight decrease in the discharge of BOD but a considerable increase in the number of species, abundance and biomass. At least for the second half of the 1980s there was no straightforward relation between the organic enrichment from the outlet and species composition, abundance and biomass and suggests that other factors are also important influencing the fluctuations in the benthic fauna. Estimates of total secondary community production were found to be very dependent on the method used. The method described by Brey (1990) was found acceptable for estimating secondary production in Arhus Bay but care should be exercised when comparisons are made with other areas where different methods have been used to estimate production. Secondary production was estimated more accurately for some of the abundant species in Arhus Bay on the basis of monthly samplings by the method described by Crisp (1984). Among the multivariate analyses the Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) and nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) proved to be the most successful with the Arhus Bay and Fornes data sets. Two Way INdicator SPecies ANalysis (TWINSPAN) did not work well with the Fornes data because it imposed discontinuities on data sets with continous variation in distribution of species among samples. As community types existed to a certain degree in Arhus Bay TWINSPAN worked well with these data. DCA and MDS were found to be useful techniques for analysing large data sets because they can summarize the data matrices to a manageable form and find possible patterns in the data sets. The results of the analyses can then be used as starting point for more detailed investigations of single species/samples or groups of species/samples. By using different transformations of the raw data the role of dominant or rare species can be assessed. A major 'problem in the assessment of multivariate techniques is the lack of external standards to compare with. The results of multivariate analyses must therefore be assessed critically on the basis of a careful examination of the species list combined with the knowledge and experience of the investigator. The methods used all had their advantages and limitations but each of the different methods added some important information to the picture of the benthic community in Arhus Bay and Fornes. It was thus an considerable advantage to use several different methods to analyse the spatial and temporal variability in the benthic fauna in relation to antropogenic and natural causes.

The IPCC report from 2013 predicts radical temperature changes in the world the coming years, with a melting ice cap in the Arctic as consequence. According to geological research made by institutes and scholars from the Arctic states the Arctic is likely to hold the last remaining oil and gas resources of the world. The melting ice cap opens up for resource exploitation and for new naval transportation routes between Asia and Europe and North America. There is a debate over what geopolitical implications these natural resources and the new transportation routes will get for the surrounding Arctic states since the existing international regulations in some areas are inadequate. This debate is divided into two camps; one side argues that the Arctic states will act cooperatively when exploiting the resources and navigating the new transportation routes, while the other side predicts violent and conflictive state behavior. The objective of this study is to analyze existing and potential conflicts in the Arctic through the perspective of leading international relations theories in order to make projections of potential Arctic developments. As analytical tool the study applies a conflict analysis framework to structure and categorize both the findings and the analytical chapter. In this qualitative and abductive study the data has been collected through mainly official state and private documents and text analysis of these documents have been used as method. The study concludes that a combination of both cooperation and competition is likely to occur in the Arctic in future, but cooperation will be the first alternative of choice for states rather than conflict.

This paper concerns the treatment of people at execution places and it is focusing on Gotland and the execution place called Galgberget. The material in the paper comes from Galgberget and a gallow in Denmark called Slots Bjergby. Together with this the laws of Gotland during the medieval and later periods are discussed and also how the archaeological material (especially the buttons) found on the excavation site can help to understand the people buried on the gallow site. The result of the analysis shows that the laws and the material found on the excavation site often tells different things. The punishments are often softer then what the law says. The material is also suggesting that it was possible to gain a better place on the execution site and that the many execution places in Visby were used for different kinds of punishments.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2007. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Diss. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2008.

Univ., Diss.--Göteborg, 2003.

Thesis--University of Copenhagen. / Translated by W.E. Calvert. Reprinted from Acta archaeologica. Summary in Danish. Bibliography: p. 227-229.