Studien syftar till att belysa finanskrisens reella påverkan på företagens finansiella riskhantering. Läsaren ska också få en ökad förståelse för hur ett mindre antal svenska företag hanterar sin finansiella risk och hur denna hantering måhända har förändrats. I denna studie har det framkommit att företag både i Kalmar, Emmaboda och Borås inte i någon större utsträckning påverkats av den finansiella krisen som rådde mellan 2007-2010. Det som har skett i två av företagen är en ökad intern kontroll och ökad krav vad gäller kontroll av kontroller för att på så vis minimera risk för företagets intressenter. Således har en viss påverkan skett som följd av finanskrisen och arbetet med riskhantering för ett urval av företag i Sverige.Respondenternas inställning till finanskrisens 2007-2010 påverkan har varit att de inte har förändrat sitt dagliga arbete nämnvärt som följd av krisen.

Inflammation contributes to the etiology of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Therefore, it is of interest to investigate how diet relates to plasma inflammatory proteins, particularly whole grain and fibre intakes, as these factors have been associated with lower CVD and T2D risk. Only a limited number of observational studies have examined these relationships. The objective of this study was to investigate the cross-sectional relationships of whole and refined grain and dietary fibre intakes with plasma inflammatory proteins. There was a strong inverse relationship between whole grain intake and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) (β =-0.102; SE=0.038; p=0.0077), and a positive relationship between refined grain intake and PAI-1 (β=0.076; SE=0.034; p=0.0251). Additionally, dietary fibre was related to lower concentrations of C-reactive protein (β=-0.034; SE=0.010; p=0.0008) and fibrinogen (β=-1.207; SE=0.505; p=0.0171). This research suggests that whole and refined grain and fibre intakes may influence inflammatory protein concentrations.

Inflammation contributes to the etiology of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Therefore, it is of interest to investigate how diet relates to plasma inflammatory proteins, particularly whole grain and fibre intakes, as these factors have been associated with lower CVD and T2D risk. Only a limited number of observational studies have examined these relationships. The objective of this study was to investigate the cross-sectional relationships of whole and refined grain and dietary fibre intakes with plasma inflammatory proteins. There was a strong inverse relationship between whole grain intake and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) (β =-0.102; SE=0.038; p=0.0077), and a positive relationship between refined grain intake and PAI-1 (β=0.076; SE=0.034; p=0.0251). Additionally, dietary fibre was related to lower concentrations of C-reactive protein (β=-0.034; SE=0.010; p=0.0008) and fibrinogen (β=-1.207; SE=0.505; p=0.0171). This research suggests that whole and refined grain and fibre intakes may influence inflammatory protein concentrations.

Following the economic theory of averting behaviour, this thesis examines preferences for drinking water in Canada. Probabilistic mortality risk perceptions and other perceived water quality measures are included in econometric models of choice, and assessed for their impact, and value. The perceived risk variable is tested for adherence to the theoretical prediction of proportionality in risk reduction values. Data were gathered through an online survey where individuals reported water quality perceptions, mortality risk perceptions and expenditures on drinking water. Risk perceptions were gathered using a risk ladder. Resulting models suggested the existence of two classes within the Canadian population. A risk-sensitive class produced a significant coefficient on the perceived mortality risk variable. A second, risk-insensitive, non-compensatory class did not produce a significant risk coefficient, and analysis suggests that these individuals primarily consume tap water. Contrary to theoretical predictions, tests for proportionality suggest favourability of models with non-linear coefficients on risk variables. / Agricultural and Resources Economics

<p>Physical inactivity is one of the leading risk factors for major non-communicable diseases, which contribute substantially to the global burden of chronic diseases, disability and death. The burden of disability, morbidity and mortality, attributable to non-communicable diseases, is currently enormous in the developed countries and is increasingly growing in the developing countries. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between participation in physical activity and health risk behaviours among high school students in the Mtwara region, Tanzania. The objectives of this study were to identify the physical activity levels among high school students in Mtwara region, Tanzania, to identify health risk behaviours among the above mentioned high school students, to identify the factors that influenced them to engage in health risk behaviours and to establish the relationship between physical activity and health risk behaviours.</p>

Reliability of products is becoming increasingly important due to rapid technological development and tough competition in the product market. One effective way to ensure reliability of sold product/asset is to consider after sales services linked to warranty and service contract. One of the major decision variables in designing a warranty is the warranty period. A longer warranty term signals better reliability and provides higher customer/user peace of mind. The warranty period offered by the manufacturer/dealer has been progressively increasing since the beginning of the 20th Century. Currently, a large number of products are being sold with long term warranties in the form of extended warranty, warranty for used product, long term service contracts, and lifetime warranty. Lifetime warranties and service contracts are becoming more and more popular as these types of warranties provide assurance to consumer for a long reliable service and protecting consumers against poor quality and the potential high cost of failure occurring during the long uncertain life of product. The study of lifetime warranty and service contracts is important to both manufacturers and the consumers. Offering a lifetime warranty and long term service contracts incur costs to the manufacturers/service provider over the useful life of the product/contract period. This cost needs to be factored into the price/premium. Otherwise the manufacturer/ dealer will incur loss instead of profit. On the other hand, buyer/user needs to model the cost of maintaining it over the useful life and needs to decide whether these policies/service contracts are worth purchasing or not. The analysis of warranty policies and costs models associated with short-term or fixed term policies have received a lot of attention. A significant amount of academic research has been conducted in modelling policies and costs for extended warranties and warranty for used products. In contrast, lifetime warranty policies and longer term service contracts have not been studied as extensively. There are complexities in developing failure and cost models for these policies due to the uncertainties of useful life, usage pattern, maintenance actions and cost of rectifications over longer period. This thesis defines product's lifetime based on current practices. Since there is no acceptable definition of lifetime or the useful life of product in existing academic literatures, different manufacturer/dealers are using different conditions of life measures of period of coverage and it is often difficult to tell whose life measures are applicable to the period of coverage (The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, 1975). Lifetime or the useful life is defined in this thesis provides a transparency for the useful life of products to both manufacturers/service provider and the customers. Followed by the formulation of an acceptable definition of lifetime, a taxonomy of lifetime warranty policies is developed which includes eight different one dimensional and two dimensional lifetime warranty policies and are grouped into three major categories, A. Free rectification lifetime warranty policies (FRLTW), B. Cost Sharing Lifetime Warranty policies (CSLTW), and C. Trade in policies (TLTW). Mathematical models for predicting failures and expected costs for different one dimensional lifetime warranty policies are developed at system level and analysed by capturing the uncertainties of lifetime coverage period and the uncertainties of rectification costs over the lifetime. Failures and costs are modelled using stochastic techniques. These are illustrated by numerical examples for estimating costs to manufacturer and buyers. Various rectification policies were proposed and analysed over the lifetime. Manufacturer's and buyer's risk attitude towards a lifetime warranty price are modelled based on the assumption of time dependent failure intensity, constant repair costs and concave utility function through the use of the manufacturer's utility function for profit and the buyer's utility function for cost. Sensitivity of the optimal warranty prices are analysed with numerical examples with respect to the factors such as the buyer's and the manufacturer/dealer's risk preferences, buyer's anticipated and manufacturer's estimated product failure intensity, the buyer's loyalty to the original manufacturer/dealer in repairing failed product and the buyer's repair costs for unwarranted products. Three new service contract policies and cost models for those policies are developed considering both corrective maintenance and planned preventive maintenance as the servicing strategies during the contract period. Finally, a case study is presented for estimating the costs of outsourcing maintenance of rails through service contracts. Rail failure/break data were collected from the Swedish rail and analysed for predicting failures. Models developed in this research can be used for managerial decisions in purchasing life time warranty policies and long term service contracts or outsourcing maintenance. This thesis concludes with a brief summary of the contributions that it makes to this field and suggestions and recommendations for future research for lifetime warranties and service contracts.

Campylobacter is currently the most common cause of acute bacterial diarrhoea in Australia among all the notified enteric pathogens with more than 15,000 cases each year. The incidence of notified campylobacteriosis has steadily increased during the past 15 years from 67.0/100,000 population in 1991 to 121.4/100,000 in 2005, though the factors contributing to this increase had not been studied. Adjusting for under-reporting there are, at this point in time, an estimated 225,000 infections occurring each year in Australia, most of which are sporadic in nature. Much of our knowledge in Australia about risk factors for sporadic disease has been based on overseas literature. Prior to the studies undertaken in this thesis, the epidemiology of Campylobacter infection had not been thoroughly studied in Australia, nor had there been any national studies examining risk factors for locally-acquired infection. The broad aim of this thesis was to examine in depth the descriptive epidemiology of Campylobacter infection in Australia, explore the reasons for the sustained increase in incidence of infection and to identify the major risk factors for locally acquired infection using a multi-centre case-control study design. The descriptive study of the epidemiology of campylobacteriosis in Australia was based on Australian notifiable disease surveillance data collected over a 15-year period between 1991 and 2005. This study described the key epidemiological characteristics of this disease in Australia and identified some significant differences in incidence trends across states and territories and among different age groups which had not been previously reported. The study identified gaps in our knowledge of this disease in Australia and made recommendations for future research including the investigation of factors associated with the decline in incidence of infection among children aged  4 years and further studies to identify age and sex-specific risk factors for infection. The issue of seasonality, transmission routes and infection was addressed and areas for further research were specified including longitudinal studies at a regional level that incorporate a comparison of human, animal and environmental genotypes. This study also provided strong compelling evidence to support the hypothesis that the increase in notification rates in Australia during this period represented a real increase in the incidence of infection and that the main driving force behind this rise has been the ongoing increase in chicken consumption among the Australian public. The multi-centre case-control study, involving 1,714 participants  5 years of age, identified the major foodborne and non-foodborne risk factors for Campylobacter infection among the general population in Australia. This study confirmed that chicken meat is a major source of sporadic infection in this country and is responsible for almost one-third of all cases that occur in the Australian community each year. Other independent risk factors for sporadic infection in Australia included consumption of offal and ownership of domestic dogs or chickens aged  6 months. The Nagelkerke R² value of 16% for the final multivariable model indicated a considerable proportion of our case-patients had unexplained risk factors. The combined population attributable risk (PAR) estimate for the independent foodborne risk factors in this study was 31%, which is considerably less than the 75% to 80% of cases in the general population which are thought to be caused through foodborne transmission. Possible explanations for these results include the likelihood that a proportion of foodborne transmission in Australia occurs through food vehicles other than chicken due to cross-contamination from raw products, and the likelihood that much of the population attributable risk that is unaccountered for, may in fact be due to inherent limitations of study design resulting in systematic errors (information bias) and possibly reduced estimates of effect. The burden of illness among the general population in Australia attributable to different independent risk factors was estimated using a novel method developed specifically for this study. Briefly, community incidence data was coupled with PAR data from the case-control study and simulation techniques were used to: (i) estimate the number of infections attributable to specific risk factors, and (ii) derive credible intervals for these estimates by modeling the uncertainty in each variable component. This model of using case-control data in conjunction with pre-existing surveillance data provides researchers with a simple but robust tool for conducting source attribution studies on enteric pathogens. In conclusion, the studies undertaken in this thesis have made important contributions to our understanding of the epidemiology of sporadic Campylobacter infection in Australia.

his dissertation provides a review of the relevance of operational risk in the banking industry and attempts to determine whether operational risk management is perceived as a moderating factor on the relationship between critical success factors and competitive advantage in banking industry. A survey was of 399 senior managers of fully licensed banks in Hong Kong. They were asked to indicate the perceived critical success factors, which include operational risk management as one of the variables in the banking industry. In addition, they were also asked to evaluate the relevance of operational risk in their industry and describe their bank's operational risk management practice.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2007. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-131) Also available via the World Wide Web.

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2005.