<p><strong>Datum: </strong>2010-06-03</p><p><strong>Kurs:</strong> Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi, 15 hp (FÖA300)</p><p><strong>Lärosäte:</strong> Mälardalens högskola, Västerås</p><p><strong>Institution: </strong>Akademin för hållbar samhälls- och teknikutveckling</p><p><strong>Titel: </strong>Verkligt värde -Hur tillämpas verkligt värde på förvaltningsfastigheter i förvaltningsbolags koncernredovisning?</p><p><strong>Författare:</strong> Belma Bjelevac, Ida Emet, Hana Karamehmedovic</p><p><strong>Handledare:</strong> Riitta Lehtisalo</p><p><strong>Examinator: </strong>Cecilia Lindh<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Problemformulering: </strong>Vilka värderingsmetoder finns för fastställandet av verkligt värde och vilken är den vanligast förekommande samt mest lämpliga metoden idag hos de undersökta fastighetsbolagen?</p><p>Hur förhåller sig de undersökta bolagen till begreppen försiktighetsprincipen och rättvisande bild vid värdering av deras förvaltningsfastigheter till verkligt värde?</p><p><strong>Syfte: </strong>Syftet med studien är att genom en empirisk undersökning få en ökad insikt om hur de undersökta fastighetsbolagen i sin koncernredovisning fastställer och redovisar det verkliga värdet på sina förvaltningsfastigheter.</p><p><strong>Metod: </strong>Uppsatsen bygger på en kvalitativ undersökning genomförd med hjälp av mejlintervjuer med tre fastighetsbolag samt studerande av deras årsredovisningar.</p><p><strong>Slutsats: </strong>De undersökta bolagen tillämpar en avkastningsbaserad metod, vilken kan ses som mest lämplig i den rådande ekonomiska situationen. Verkligt värde speglar en mer rättvisande bild än vid värdering till anskaffningsvärde, dock tas inte hänsyn till försiktighetsprincipen i lika stor utsträckning.<strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Nyckelord: </strong>Försiktighetsprincipen, förvaltningsfastighet, IAS 40, rättvisande bild, verkligt värde</p>

L'évolution de certains corps planétaires fait intervenir de manière couplée la dynamique interne et la dynamique de rotation. La convection solide, qui façonne le champ de température et donc la rhéologie visqueuse, contrôle la dissipation visqueuse du forçage de marée qui intervient sur l'évolution de l'orbite et la période de rotation. En retour, la dissipation de marée induit une composante de chauffage pour l'évolution thermique. A travers l'étude de trois corps, Mercure, Mars et Japet, je montre l'intérêt de cette formulation couplée de l'évolution. La dissipation de marée a joué un rôle important dans les premiers temps de l'évolution de Mercure (contribution au budget de chaleur, ralentissement de la rotation). L'étude couplée indique que l'orientation des escarpements lobés observés à la surface de Mercure peut être héritée de cette interaction. L'évolution du noyau issue de cette étude préserve une partie liquide à l'heure actuelle qui autorise une origine comparable à la dynamo terrestre pour le champ magnétique de Mercure. La différence importante entre les rayons équatorial et polaire de Japet peut être comprise comme une forme fossile héritée d'une époque où la période de rotation fut plus rapide et l'intérieur plus chaud. Ce scénario n'est possible que si les éléments radioactifs abondent dans les premiers instants de l'évolution de Japet. Mars ne présente en revanche aucune interaction de marée notable mais l'influence de la dynamique interne sur l'orientation de la rotation est invoquée pour expliquer les positions relatives du dôme de Tharsis et de la dichotomie hémisphérique. J'introduis un formalisme qui permet de mieux tester cette hypothèse.

Datum: 2010-06-03 Kurs: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi, 15 hp (FÖA300) Lärosäte: Mälardalens högskola, Västerås Institution: Akademin för hållbar samhälls- och teknikutveckling Titel: Verkligt värde -Hur tillämpas verkligt värde på förvaltningsfastigheter i förvaltningsbolags koncernredovisning? Författare: Belma Bjelevac, Ida Emet, Hana Karamehmedovic Handledare: Riitta Lehtisalo Examinator: Cecilia Lindh Problemformulering: Vilka värderingsmetoder finns för fastställandet av verkligt värde och vilken är den vanligast förekommande samt mest lämpliga metoden idag hos de undersökta fastighetsbolagen? Hur förhåller sig de undersökta bolagen till begreppen försiktighetsprincipen och rättvisande bild vid värdering av deras förvaltningsfastigheter till verkligt värde? Syfte: Syftet med studien är att genom en empirisk undersökning få en ökad insikt om hur de undersökta fastighetsbolagen i sin koncernredovisning fastställer och redovisar det verkliga värdet på sina förvaltningsfastigheter. Metod: Uppsatsen bygger på en kvalitativ undersökning genomförd med hjälp av mejlintervjuer med tre fastighetsbolag samt studerande av deras årsredovisningar. Slutsats: De undersökta bolagen tillämpar en avkastningsbaserad metod, vilken kan ses som mest lämplig i den rådande ekonomiska situationen. Verkligt värde speglar en mer rättvisande bild än vid värdering till anskaffningsvärde, dock tas inte hänsyn till försiktighetsprincipen i lika stor utsträckning. Nyckelord: Försiktighetsprincipen, förvaltningsfastighet, IAS 40, rättvisande bild, verkligt värde

In test score equating the focus is on the problem of finding the relationship between the scales of different test forms. This can be done only if data are collected in such a way that the effect of differences in ability between groups taking different test forms can be separated from the effect of differences in test form difficulty. In standard equating procedures this problem has been solved by using common examinees or common items. With common examinees, as in the equivalent groups design, the single group design, and the counterbalanced design, the examinees taking the test forms are either exactly the same, i.e., each examinee takes both test forms, or random samples from the same population. Common items (anchor items) are usually used when the samples taking the different test forms are assumed to come from different populations. The thesis consists of four papers and the main theme in three of these papers is the use of covariates, i.e., background variables correlated with the test scores, in observed score equating. We show how covariates can be used to adjust for systematic differences between samples in a non-equivalent groups design when there are no anchor items. We also show how covariates can be used to decrease the equating error in an equivalent groups design or in a non-equivalent groups design. The first paper, Paper I, is the only paper where the focus is on something else than the incorporation of covariates in equating. The paper is an introduction to test score equating, and the author's thoughts on the foundation of test score equating. There are a number of different definitions of test score equating in the literature. Some of these definitions are presented and the similarities and differences between them are discussed. An attempt is also made to clarify the connection between the definitions and the most commonly used equating functions. In Paper II a model is proposed for observed score linear equating with background variables. The idea presented in the paper is to adjust for systematic differences in ability between groups in a non-equivalent groups design by using information from background variables correlated with the observed test scores. It is assumed that conditional on the background variables the two samples can be seen as random samples from the same population. The background variables are used to explain the systematic differences in ability between the populations. The proposed model consists of a linear regression model connecting the observed scores with the background variables and a linear equating function connecting observed scores on one test forms to observed scores on the other test form. Maximum likelihood estimators of the model parameters are derived, using an assumption of normally distributed test scores, and data from two administrations of the Swedish Scholastic Assessment Test are used to illustrate the use of the model. In Paper III we use the model presented in Paper II with two different data collection designs: the non-equivalent groups design (with and without anchor items) and the equivalent groups design. Simulated data are used to examine the effect - in terms of bias, variance and mean squared error - on the estimators, of including covariates. With the equivalent groups design the results show that using covariates can increase the accuracy of the equating. With the non-equivalent groups design the results show that using an anchor test together with covariates is the most efficient way of reducing the mean squared error of the estimators. Furthermore, with no anchor test, the background variables can be used to adjust for the systematic differences between the populations and produce unbiased estimators of the equating relationship, provided that the “right” variables are used, i.e., the variables explaining those differences. In Paper IV we explore the idea of using covariates as a substitute for an anchor test with a non-equivalent groups design in the framework of Kernel Equating. Kernel Equating can be seen as a method including five different steps: presmoothing, estimation of score probabilities, continuization, equating, and calculating the standard error of equating. For each of these steps we give the theoretical results when observations on covariates are used as a substitute for scores on an anchor test. It is shown that we can use the method developed for Post-Stratification Equating in the non-equivalent groups with anchor test design, but with observations on the covariates instead of scores on an anchor test. The method is illustrated using data from the Swedish Scholastic Assessment Test.

The purpose of this study is to trace how Sara Willis Parton achieved unprecedented literary celebrity status as Fanny Fern during the first three years of her professional career, 1851-1853. While most critics point to her famously lucrative contract with the most popular newspaper of the 1850s, the New York Ledger, in 1854 as the beginning of her fame, I argue that she had already fully achieved that fame and had done so by writing for small Boston newspapers and publishing a highly successful collection of her articles by 1853. Further, Fern was able to achieve such a high level of success because of a keen business sense, intuitive marketing savvy, an ability to promote herself, an original writing style, and a creative use of personas. My study provides an important addition to Fern scholarship by addressing the largely overlooked early years of her writing career. To date, scholars either make no mention of her first three years or do so only to demonstrate the point that Fern achieved notable success when she signed a contract for one hundred dollars a column with Robert Bonner, publisher and editor of the New York Ledger. Prior to that contract, Fern worked as a freelance writer for the Boston Olive Branch and the Boston True Flag, earning less than five dollars for each sketch she submitted. The critical assumption has been that her initial work prepared her for the fame she would achieve writing for Bonner, but in fact Bonner would not have hired her had she not already achieved significant fame, for Bonner hired only highly celebrated writers. My study explores how Fanny Fern became a famous writer. When she began writing, Fern wrote under a number of previously unknown pseudonyms for local newspapers, but within three years her distinctive style, rhetorical skill, and iconoclastic persona had made ―Fanny Fern a household name. Fern‘s unique ability to engage a popular audience, I would argue, is the principal difference between Fern and other famous contemporary women writers.

Video frame rate up-conversion is an important issue for multimedia systems in achieving better video quality and motion portrayal. Motion-compensated methods offer better quality interpolated frames since the interpolation is performed along the motion trajectory. In addition, computational complexity, regularity, and memory bandwidth are important for a real-time implementation. Motion-compensated frame rate up-conversion (MC-FRC) is composed of two main parts: motion estimation (ME) and motion-compensated frame interpolation (MCFI). Since ME is an essential part of MC-FRC, a new fast motion estimation (FME) algorithm capable of producing sub-sample motion vectors at low computational-complexity has been developed. Unlike existing FME algorithms, the developed algorithm considers the low complexity sub-sample accuracy in designing the search pattern for FME. The developed FME algorithm is designed in such a way that the block distortion measure (BDM) is modeled as a parametric surface in the vicinity of the integer-sample motion vector; this modeling enables low computational-complexity sub-sample motion estimation without pixel interpolation. MC-FRC needs more accurate motion trajectories for better video quality; hence, a novel true-motion estimation (TME) algorithm targeting to track the projected object motion has been developed for video processing applications, such as motion-compensated frame interpolation (MCFI), deinterlacing, and denoising. Developed TME algorithm considers not only the computational complexity and regularity but also memory bandwidth. TME is obtained by imposing implicit and explicit smoothness constraints on block matching algorithm (BMA). In addition, it employs a novel adaptive clustering algorithm to keep the low-complexity at reasonable levels yet enable exploiting more spatiotemporal neighbors. To produce better quality interpolated frames, dense motion field at the interpolation instants are obtained for both forward and backward motion vectors (MVs); then, bidirectional motion compensation using forward and backward MVs is applied by mixing both elegantly.

This work explains the effect of failure on permeability anisotropy and dilation in sands. Shear failure is widely observed in field operations. There is incomplete understanding of the influence of shear failure in sand formations. Shear plane orientations are dependent on the stress anisotropy and that view is confirmed in this research. The effect of shear failure on the permeability is confirmed and calculated. Description of permeability anisotropy due to shear failure has also been discussed. In this work, three-dimensional discrete element modeling is used to model the behavior of uncemented and weakly cemented sand samples. Mechanical deformation data from experiments conducted on sand samples is used to calibrate the properties of the spherical particles in the simulations. Orientation of the failure planes (due to mechanical deformation) is analyzed both in an axi-symmetric stress regime (cylindrical specimen) and a non-axi-symmetric stress regime (right cuboidal specimen). Pore network fluid flow simulations are conducted before and after mechanical deformation to observe the effect of failure and stress anisotropy on the permeability and dilation of the granular specimen. A rolling resistance strategy is applied in the simulations, incorporating the stiffness of the specimens due to particle angularity, aiding in the calibration of the simulated samples against experimental data to derive optimum granular scale elastic and friction properties. A flexible membrane algorithm is applied on the lateral boundary of the simulation samples to implement the effect of a rubber/latex jacket. The effect of particle size distribution, stress anisotropy, and confining pressure on failure, permeability and dilation is studied. Using the calibrated micro-properties, simulations are extended to non-cylindrical specimen geometries to simulate field-like anisotropic stress regimes. The shear failure plane alignment is observed to be parallel to the maximum horizontal stress plane. Pore network fluid flow simulations confirm the increase in permeability due to shear failure and show a significantly greater permeability increase in the maximum horizontal stress direction. Using the flow simulations, anisotropy in the permeability field is observed by plotting the permeability ellipsoid. Samples with a small value of inter-granular cohesion depict greater shear failure, larger permeability increase and a greater permeability anisotropy than samples with a larger value of inter-granular cohesion. This is estimated by the number of micro-cracks observed. / text

This thesis identifies a trend in recent postmodern dystopian fiction for writers to metafictionally dwell on the place of literature in a future context. This trend springs from similar concerns present in the two most influential dystopian novels of the 20th century, Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Yet, unlike Huxley and Orwell, for whom the marginalization of literature is merely one symptom of the hegemonic control oppressing these future societies, the postmodern writers I identify situate the book’s future disappearance at the epicenter of culture’s demise. In Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story (2010), electronic technologies have virtually eradicated print literature and the novel’s protagonist, Lenny, mourns the changes in social interactions he sees this shift in technology bringing about. In Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods (2007), marginalized book-lovers see the devastation humanity continuously wreaks on the environment as a product of culture’s disdain for literature.

Recent research focuses on expanding the use of RF/Microwave circuits and systems to include multi-disciplinary applications. One example is the detection of the dielectric properties of chemicals and bio-chemicals at microwave frequencies, which is useful for pharmaceutical applications, food and drug safety, medical diagnosis and material characterization. Dielectric spectroscopy is also quite relevant to detect the frequency dispersive characteristics of materials over a wide frequency range for more accurate detection. In this dissertation, on-chip and on-board solutions for microwave chemical sensing are proposed. An example of an on-chip dielectric detection technique for chemical sensing is presented. An on-chip sensing capacitor, whose capacitance changes when exposed to material under test (MUT), is a part of an LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). The VCO is embedded inside a frequency synthesizer to convert the change in the free runing frequency frequency of the VCO into a change of its input voltage. The system is implemented using 90 nm CMOS technology and the permittivities of MUTs are evaluated using a unique detection procedure in the 7-9 GHz frequency range with an accuracy of 3.7% in an area of 2.5 × 2.5 mm^2 with a power consumption of 16.5 mW. The system is also used for binary mixture detection with a fractional volume accuracy of 1-2%. An on-board miniaturized dielectric spectroscopy system for permittivity detec- tion is also presented. The sensor is based on the detection of the phase difference be- tween the input and output signals of cascaded broadband True-Time-Delay (TTD) cells. The sensing capacitor exposed to MUTs is a part of the TTD cell. The change of the permittivity results in a change of the phase of the microwave signal passing through the TTD cell. The system is fabricated on Rogers Duroid substrates with a total area of 8 × 7.2 cm2. The permittivities of MUTs are detected in the 1-8 GHz frequency range with a detection accuracy of 2%. Also, the sensor is used to extract the fractional volumes of mixtures with accuracy down to 1%. Additionally, multi-band and multi-standard communication systems motivate the trend to develop broadband front-ends covering all the standards for low cost and reduced chip area. Broadband amplifiers are key building blocks in wideband front-ends. A broadband resistive feedback low-noise amplifier (LNA) is presented using a composite cross-coupled CMOS pair for a higher gain and reduced noise figure. The LNA is implemented using 90 nm CMOS technology consuming 18 mW in an area of 0.06 mm2. The LNA shows a gain of 21 dB in the 2-2300 MHz frequency range, a minimum noise figure of 1.4 dB with an IIP3 of -1.5 dBm. Also, a four-stage distributed amplifier is presented providing bandwidth extension with 1-dB flat gain response up to 16 GHz. The flat extended bandwidth is provided using coupled inductors in the gate line with series peaking inductors in the cascode gain stages. The amplifier is fabricated using 180 nm CMOS technology in an area of 1.19 mm2 achieving a power gain of 10 dB, return losses better than 16 dB, noise figure of 3.6-4.9 dB and IIP3 of 0 dBm with 21 mW power consumption. All the implemented circuits and systems in this dissertation are validated, demonstrated and published in several IEEE Journals and Conferences.

Detractors of sentimental literature argue that such novels are unoriginal and concerned primarily with emotions. Feminist scholars redeem the reputation of sentimental literature to an extent. At present, a multitude of approaches present sentimental authors as active agents, engaging with public issues. Building upon the scholarship of prominent feminist historians and literary critics, this thesis provides direct evidence that three female authors embrace the responsibilities of being a social critic. The Wide, Wide World (1850) by Susan Warner, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851) by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and The Hidden Hand (1859) by Emma D.E.N. Southworth provide unique commentaries on the separation of the private and public spheres, market revolution, and religion. Decisive differences between the authors’ opinions reveal a high degree of engagement with the public issues.