Over the past decades, investing and saving in mutual funds has become a popular alternativefor generating returns. Interest continues to grow and is widespread among different types ofinvestors, ranging from small-scale savers to professional investors, as well as differentgeographic markets. As interest and investment has grown, so has the range of fundsavailable, and with it the range of focused funds. Among these are real estate funds, fundsconsisting of holdings in the real estate market including different types of real estatecompanies and property-related assets. The ownership of funds is associated with a fee to cover various costs associated withoperating the fund. These fees can vary greatly in size across fund types and managers andaffect the fund’s performance and returns. Fees in relation to return have been researchedwith varying results and with the rise of focused funds, the authors felt that it should befurther investigated. The purpose of this study was thus formulated to investigate whetherthere is a relationship between fund fees and returns for real estate funds. This in turn toanswer whether it is justified for fund managers to charge a higher fee and to examine if theTheory of an Efficient Market holds or not. For this, a total sample of 69 real estate fundsfrom the Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish markets during a 3 year period from 1th of January2020 to the 31th of December 2022 was examined. In summary, based on the conducted regression analyses, it can be inferred that the results,similar to previous research, vary. However, it can be observed that there is a negativerelationship between fund fees and the risk-adjusted returns of real estate funds whenanalysing funds that have been active throughout the examined period. The analyses alsoreveal that the age and size of the funds have an impact on the risk-adjusted returns, whereyounger funds with large assets generate higher returns. This means that young real estatefunds with large assets and lower fees generate higher returns compared to older funds withsmall assets and higher fees. Consequently, it is not justified for managers to charge higherfees, nor for investors to pay them. Investors seeking to maximise their returns are thereforeadvised to choose real estate funds with low fees. Finally, based on this, it can be assumedthat the Theory of Efficient Markets holds for real estate funds in the Swedish, Norwegian,and Finnish markets.

In a time where environmental issues have become an important topic on the political agenda, car companies have begun transitioning from fossil-fueled vehicles to battery-driven electric vehicles. In this transition, multiple Chinese electric car manufacturers have emerged on the European car market. The purpose with this study has been to investigate Norwegian consumers' perception of Chinese electric car manufacturers. Empirical data was gathered through a self-completion questionnaire that was sent out to Norwegian electric car-related forums and Facebook groups. The results showed that Norwegians had a positive attitude towards electric cars and large intentions of purchasing one. This did not correlate with their attitude and intention of purchasing a Chinese electric car. A contributor to the Norwegians’ negative effect on Chinese electric cars consisted of the individuals’ political views of China. Lastly, it was seen that social norms and perceived behavioral control cannot be considered predictors of the intention. / I en tid där miljöfrågor har blivit ett viktigt ämne på den politiska agendan har bilföretagen påbörjat en övergång från fossildrivna fordon till batteridrivna elfordon. I denna övergång har flera kinesiska elbilstillverkare dykt upp på den europeiska bilmarknaden. Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka norska konsumenters uppfattning om kinesiska elbilstillverkare. Empirisk data samlades in genom ett självfyllande frågeformulär som skickades ut till norska elbilsrelaterade forum och Facebook-grupper. Resultaten visade att norrmän hade en positiv inställning mot elbilar och hade stora avsikter att köpa en. Det här korrelerade inte med deras inställning och avsikt om att köpa en kinesisk elbil. En stor bidragande faktor till norrmännens negativa effekt på kinesiska elbilar var individernas politiska syn på Kina. Slutligen uppmärksammades det att sociala normer och upplevd beteendekontroll inte kan betraktas som prediktorer för deras avsikt.

The forest constitutes a very important element of renewable natural resources and makes a significant contribution to the Swedish bioeconomy. Biofuels are Sweden’s largest source of energy; of all the energy we use, 32% comes from biofuels, and of this approximately 85% comes from the forest and the forestry sector. In spite of this, logging residues constitute only a small component, compared to for example byproducts from sawmills and pulpindustry, and there is considered to be great potential for increasing their use. In 2019 the Swedish Forestry Agency issued new recommendations for logging residue harvest and ash recycling. This was a further development of the 2008 recommendations, which formed the foundation for how forest fuel producers work today, and were based on several decades of research into, for example, the impact on forest productivity and technological development of machinery. This practice of logging residue harvest aims to yield a dry and defoliated fuel where the needles are left at the clear felled area. However, if we are to increase the use of green renewable energy from forestry, it is very important to understand how different procurement systems affect the handling and storability of fuels from a quality perspective. It is also of great importance to understand, from the forest owners’ perspective, how removal of additional products from forestry influences nutritional balance and long-term productivity. If harvesting of logging residues does not affect long-term productivity, it is up to small-scale private forest owners to decide if removal of logging residues will be performed on their land. This thesis addresses some of these issues regarding removal of logging residues from the point of tree harvest up to the point of delivery to the energy conversion industry when the fuel chips are measured. Regarding different methods of handling of logging residues, the traditional method – dry-stacking – was compared with the, fresh-stacking method. The logging residues investigated came from stands that mainly consisted of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst). The loads investigated in Paper 3 also came from logging of spruce-dominated forests. Both methods aim to dry the logging residues to an acceptable moisture content for delivery to the energyconversion industry. For the later part in the supply chain, moisture content measurements of logging residues were compared during a winter and summer season. The results of the studies indicate that the two methods do not create results that differ from what is allowed by the Swedish Forestry Agency and that they are quite similar with respect to dry mass- and nutrient removal from the clearfelled area. The results also show that similar yields and distributions of material are obtained from the logging residues with different stacking methods; in addition, the final felling itself, combined with the work performed by the forwarder operator, has a greater impact on the result than the method chosen for residue stacking of the logging residues. For the individual clear-felled area and the individual forest owner the increased removal associated with freshstacked logging residue has no major impact, however from a national perspective this small increase in removed logging residues may yield a supplement of between 0.5 – 1 TWh of green energy annually. Regardless of treatment, the studies indicated that the delivered fuel chips will have similar characteristics. The moisture content measurement techniques currently in use are sufficiently accurate and reliable. However, if the forest owner is unlucky and an error in measurement occurs or comminution and delivery happens during an especially wet period they may suffer a significant financial loss; indeed, it is generally not under the individual forest owners’ control when the logging residues are comminuted and delivered.

This thesis examines the debate regarding the establishment of a memorial to the victims of a national trauma; the terrorist attacks in Norway July 22, 2011. This thesis reflects on how different interest groups are treated regarding the memorial’s design according to the groups’ own opinions and arguments.The method chosen is a qualitative text analysis where a selection of material is used to formulate answers and opinions from the interest groups regarding the memorials purpose. Constructed argumentation are identified based on the perspectives regarding the issues.  The national memorial at Utøyakaia stands to remember the deceased and wounded, but also to give reflection upon terrorism and consequences of political extremism. This purpose is debated regarding on how this retelling of history should be presented at its authentic location.The interest groups are identified through the work since everyone’s involvement is not clear to all. Different forms of power and knowledge play a key role in these negotiations, where arguments and opinions are mixed through a private and professional character.  Appearance and location are the two biggest issues. Since these are most lacking in the agreements between the interest groups. The memorial should be beautiful and have associations to the island. This definition opens up to multiple ideas regarding its design which leaves no suggestion to feel justified.Utøya today is a name that brings association to the date and the place of the massacre. Utøya is an identity that has forever changed the island, AUF and the locals living in the area. It is both an authentic historical location and a memorial grove, a tourist attraction and a place where everyday life goes on through the trauma.  This is a two years’ master’s thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

All Roads Lead to the Snow-Capped Mountains: An Examination of Snow in Norwegian Nation Building During the Late 19th Century. Uppsala University: Dep. of History of Science and Ideas, Bachelor of Art’s thesis, spring term 2024. This essay examines three literary works by Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen. The purpose is to explore the ways in which snow played a part in Norwegian nationalism at the end of the 19th century. At the time that Nansen’s books were originally published, Norway had been at the political and cultural mercy of its neighboring nations for the past five centuries. An ambition for complete independence was brewing, and Fridtjof Nansen became part of a group of intellectuals tasked with creating a new national identity, one that was constructed through the creation of cultural borders and visions of a nation aligned with a perceived glorious past. National romanticism had a strong grip on Europe in general during this time, and infusing the national identity with a romanticized nature was commonplace. Norway is no exception to this, but the argument put forth here is that snow played a particular part in creating the new nation, aside from the rest of nature. Fridtjof Nansen personified, through his own activism and resistance to the unions, the Norwegian identity, and became in a sense synonymous with it. Through his personal relationship with snow, snow became personal to the nation.

During the Cold War, Norway was a member of NATO, Sweden was neutral but depended on Western support in the event of a crisis, while Finland's foreign policy priority was to win and retain the Soviet Union's confidence. The purpose of the thesis is to study whether the three small states' different foreign policy choices had consequences for the ways in which the Soviet Union and the USA were depicted in school textbooks for history, geography, and social sciences in the period 1930 to 2004. To this end, a theory derived from small states' strategies to maintain their independence was applied to textbook production. The study demonstrates that there was a link between small state foreign policy and textbooks' accounts of the USA and Soviet Union. Swedish and Norwegian textbooks portray international conflicts from a legalistic perspective, taking the part of small states exposed to superpower aggression such as Vietnam and Afghanistan. In Finnish textbooks, however, an interest in defending small state's rights yielded to the need to demonstrate their goodwill towards the Soviet Union, which was described in far less critical terms than in Swedish and Norwegian textbooks. In time, in the name of neutrality, depictions of the USA also became increasingly uncritical. All three Nordic states had government authorities charged with inspecting and approving school textbooks. Foreign policy's chief influence on textbooks was not effected by direct oversight, however; instead, it was established indirectly by means of the social climate, which determined what was considered politically correct in the three countries, and it was to this that the textbooks' authors adapted their work. Textbooks are often said to be conservative and slow to change, but the thesis shows that in parts they were politically sensitive, rapidly adapting to changes in what society held to be politically correct.

The oppression that indigenous people experienced in many decades slowly began to loosen after the second world war, this is partly visible in the growing number of international convention protecting indigenous people. The racism and discrimination towards the indigenous people were exchanged with an aim to mediate a respectful and informative view of the history about the indigenous people to the majority. The Sami people’s history, the indigenous people of Norway, Sweden, Russia and Finland, is a European example of colonial oppression inside the boundaries of Europe. This essay aim to analyze how the Samis are represented in the Swedish curriculum from 1994 and 2011 and the Norwegian curriculum from 1997 and 2015. The analyze is concentrated to the subjects Religious Education and History. The theory of the analyze is based on postcolonial theory presented by Ania Loomba which make it possible to critically examine the curriculums.