What Drives the Difference in Probability of Default from Reduced Form- and Structural Approaches

This Master Thesis successfully explains the difference in probability of default implied by Credit Default Swaps, traded by the market, and the benchmark Moody’s EDFTM. The difference is explained by the market price of risk, related to the Girsanov kernel, allowing us to transform the risk neutral measure Q to the physical measure P. This market price of risk is modeled with a log-linear multivariate regression model combined with elastic net, using market data. The predictability of the model is examined. The market price of risk is seen to be mostly dependent on market sentiment, in front of firm specific factors and liquidity. The analysis is made for AB Volvo, Stora Enso Oyj and TeliaSonera AB on data from 2006 - 2014. The work was carried out at Swedbank

Phraseological patterns in a civic orientation textbook for immigrants to Sweden: How heterogeneous readers and a largely non-monolithic country are constructed

Aiming to critically review texts that construct knowledge about social categories, this study analyses a textbook used in Sweden to introduce new immigrants to Swedish society. It is investigated, through the pronoun you, how the target reader and, through the noun Sweden and the adjective Swedish, how Sweden and what is Swedish are discursively constructed. These three word forms occur most frequently in their respective word classes in the textbook. The recurrent phraseological patterns that they are involved in form the starting-point for an analysis of their discourse functions. A critical perspective is adopted, by asking to what extent the textbook presents a uniform and essentialist picture of the newcomer and of Sweden. The findings show that the textbook exhibits a reader-oriented style through excessive you uses. The image of the newcomer is marked by heterogeneity: the reader is offered a variety of hypothetical identities through frequently used if-you-conditionals. By demonstrating relevance and linking information and advice directly to the reader, the you patterns realise a strategy of inclusion. However, the reader group is also presented as internally similar, in being seen as less knowledgeable and in need of the writer’s guidance. The writer and reader are not presented as sharing understandings and goals, hence distance is created rather than proximity. The construction of Sweden links mostly to meanings of the nation that involve institutions, while meanings to do with culture and traditions are rare and hedged. Attempts are made to avoid ethnification of Swedish people, even if some majority views and practices are still presented. Strategies of inclusion and non-ethnification have led to favouring expressions like [people] in Sweden and disfavouring words like Swede(s) and immigrant(s). It is through in Sweden-statements that readers are covertly told what they need to do to fit in with majority views

Nouns and Academic Interactions: A Neglected Feature of Metadiscourse

Metadiscourse has received considerable attention in recent years as a way of understanding the rhetorical negotiations involved in academic writing. But while a useful tool in revealing something of the dynamic interactions which underlie persuasive claim making, it has little to say about the role of nouns in this process. We address this gap by exploring the rhetorical functions of what we call metadiscursive nouns (such as fact, analysis, belief) and by mapping them onto a model of metadiscourse. The study examines ‘metadiscursive noun + post-nominal clause’ patterns, one of the most frequent structures containing such nouns, in a corpus of 120 research articles across six disciplines. Developing a rhetorically based classification and exploring the interactive and interactional use of metadiscursive nouns, we show that they are another key element of metadiscourse, offering writers a way of organizing discourse into a cohesive flow of information and of constructing a stance towards it. These interactions are further shown to realize the epistemological assumptions and rhetorical practices of particular disciplines

A contrastive study of the rhetorical organisation of English and Spanish PhD thesis introductions

This paper presents an analysis of the introductory sections of a corpus of 20 doctoral theses on computing written in Spanish and in English. Our aim was to ascertain whether the theses, produced within the same scientific-technological area but by authors from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, employed the same rhetorical strategies to introduce the work presented. The analysis follows the Swalesian approach and is based on a move/step/sub-step model proposed for PhD introductions in Spanish (Carbonell-Olivares, Gil-Salom, & Soler-Monreal, 2009). The Spanish academic conventions appear to be that move 1 (M1- Establishing the Territory) and move 3 (M3- Occupying the Niche) are obligatory moves in PhD thesis introductions in Spanish, while move 2 (M2- Establishing the Niche) is optional. The structure of English thesis introductions reveals that they conform more closely to the M1-M2-M3 arrangement. Moreover, combinations of moves and patterns, cyclicity and embedding make their organisation more complex. The step analysis suggests that introductions in both languages rely mainly on the presentation of background information and the work carried out. However, the English introductions tend to stress the writer's own work, its originality and its contribution to the field of study. They also present more embedding and overlapping of steps and sub-steps than the Spanish texts. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.Soler Monreal, C.; Carbonell Olivares, MS.; Gil Salom, ML. (2011). A contrastive study of the rhetorical organisation of English and Spanish PhD thesis introductions. English for Specific Purposes. 30(1):4-17. doi:10.1016/j.esp.2010.04.005S41730

Yeast biocontrol of grain spoilage moulds

The biocontrol yeast Pichia anomala J121 prevents mould spoilage by Penicillium roqueforti and prolongs the safe storage of moist cereal grain in malfunctioning airtight storage systems. P. anomala is naturally occurring on grain and is classified as safe, i.e. biosafety level 1 microorganism. Strain J121 does not grow above 37°C and is sensitive to commonly used antifungal drugs. The ability of P. anomala to prevent mould growth during 14 months of wheat grain storage was evaluated in outdoor silos with different air permeability. P. anomala rapidly consumed O2 leaking into the silo during the spring, and P. roqueforti did not grow in treatments inoculated with P. anomala. A connection between production of the ester ethyl acetate and biocontrol activity was found. The biocontrol effect was enhanced when complex medium or glucose was added to grain minisilos. The addition did not markedly influence yeast cell numbers, but products of glucose metabolism, ethyl acetate in particular and ethanol, increased. When a diploid and a haploid strain of Pichia anomala were tested at two water activities (aw) for biocontrol ability in grain minisilos, the two yeast strains grew and inhibited mould growth equally well and showed similar patterns of ethyl acetate production at the higher aw. However, at lower aw the growth, biocontrol performance and ethyl acetate production of the haploid strain were reduced. The biocontrol activity of an additional 57 yeast species was evaluated in grain minisilos. Most yeast species grew to levels comparable to that of P. anomala J121, but only six other species strongly inhibited P. roqueforti. The biocontrol activity of Candida fennica and Candida silvicultrix is reported for the first time. The ability of 27 yeast species to grow to high CFU values without inhibiting mold growth, and the increase in biocontrol activity after nutrient addition, indicates that nutrient competition is not the main reason for mould inhibition in the system. Instead, a combination of ethyl acetate production and rapid consumption of oxygen leaking into the system could be the main inhibitory mechanism

Vilken hållbar utveckling? En studie av ryska och svenska studenters uppfattningar av begreppet hållbar utveckling

Begreppet hållbar utveckling har allt sedan Brundtlandrapporten år 1987 blivit mer och mer använt över hela världen. Begreppet kan dock definieras på många olika sätt och uppfattas olika av olika aktörer i samhället. Ambivalensen kring begreppet har på en internationell nivå lett till svårlösta konflikter mellan stater. En aspekt som dock verkar mindre väl utforskad är hur medborgare på lokal nivå uppfattar begreppet hållbar utveckling och varifrån de får sina uppfattningar. Hur universitetsstudenter uppfattar begreppet är särskilt intressant att undersöka då utbildningssystemet är ett effektivt medel för att förändra människors tankesätt i en hållbar riktning. Denna kandidatuppsats i kulturgeografi har som syfte att komparativt undersöka studenters uppfattningar av begreppet hållbar utveckling i Ryssland och Sverige samt undersöka möjliga förklaringar till varför begreppet uppfattas som det gör. Platserna som har valts för undersökningen är St. Petersburgs statliga polytekniska universitet i St. Petersburg, Ryssland, och Chalmers tekniska högskola AB i Göteborg, Sverige. De utbildningar som har valts är civilingenjörsprogrammen Industriell och civil byggnad och Stadsbyggnad i Ryssland och Väg- och vattenbyggnad i Sverige. Tidigare forskning kring skiftande uppfattningar av begreppet presenteras och ett teoretiskt ramverk för att kategorisera uppfattningar ställs upp. Som metod används semistrukturerade intervjuer och dokumentstudier av universitetens mål och kursplaner för kurserna "Ekologi" och "Miljö- och resursanalys för hållbar utveckling". Resultaten analyseras och jämförs utifrån det teoretiska ramverket. Vi drar slutsatsen att det finns stora skillnader mellan de ryska och svenska studenternas uppfattningar, men även några likheter. Få ryska studenter känner till begreppet hållbar utveckling och prioriterar ekonomisk utveckling och tekniska lösningar. De svenska studenterna, däremot, känner till begreppet hållbar utveckling och prioriterar miljön och livsstilsförändringar. I båda länderna anses både staten och medborgarna ha ansvaret för att uppnå hållbar utveckling. Hållbar utveckling nämns i liten utsträckning på miljöutbildningen i Ryssland och i både Ryssland och Sverige tar utbildningen endast upp den ekologiska dimensionen av hållbar utveckling. Vår bedömning är att begreppet inte är lika spritt i det ryska samhället som i det svenska och att skillnaderna främst beror på ländernas olika historia och socioekonomiska utvecklingsnivå och i mindre grad på kulturella skillnader

Hantering av avloppsslam vid FKA : Jämförelse av olika slamhanteringsmetoder

Studien identifierar flera slamhanteringsalternativ som är lämpliga att användas avForsmark Kraftgrupp AB:s avloppsreningsverk. Målet med studien är att kunna geförslag på de mest lämpliga slamhaneringsalternativen samt att identifiera lämpligaslamhanteringsalternativ. Studien beskriver även den mekaniska, biologiska och ke-miska reningen för avloppsreningen och avvattningen av avloppsslammet. En kombination av flera metoder användes för att utföra denna studie. En litteratur-studie har utförts för att samla in information om olika sätt att hantera avloppsslamför att kunna utföra en SWOT-analys. Därefter utfördes en förenklad multikriterie-analys för att rangordna tre av dessa slamhanteringsalternativ. Multikriterieanalysenundersökte kategorierna kostnad, miljöpåverkan och tekniskt möjligt utifrån nuva-rande förutsättningar. Informationsinsamlingen kompletterades med ett studiebesökpå avloppsreningsverket. Resultatet i SWOT-analysen visar att olika sätt att hantera avloppsslam har olika för-delar och nackdelar. Kompostering, deponitäckning och användning på jordbruks-mark med fokus på REVAQ valdes ut för att utföra en förenklad multikriterieanalys.Utifrån resultatet syns det att deponitäckning är det mest lämpliga alternativet uti-från den förenklade multikriterieanalysen och den information som framkommit ilitteraturstudien. Deponitäckning rankar högst i miljöpåverkan och koldioxidut-släpp.The report identifies several sludge handling options that could be suitable for For-smark Kraftgrupp AB's sewage treatment plant. The aim for the report is to be ableto give recommendations for the most suitable sludge handling alternatives and toidentify suitable sludge handling alternatives. The study also describes the mechani-cal, biological and chemical treatment for the sewage treatment and the dewateringof the sewage sludge. A combination of several methods are used to complete this report. A literature re-view has been carried out to collect information on different ways of handling sew-age sludge to carry out a SWOT analysis. A simplified multi-criteria analysis wasthen performed to rank three of these sludge management options. The multi-crite-ria analysis examined the categories cost, environmental impact and technically pos-sible based on current conditions. The information gathering was supplementedwith a visit to the sewage treatment plant. The results of the SWOT analysis show that different ways of handling sewagesludge have different strengths and weaknesses. Composting, landfill coverage anduse om farmland were selected to perform a simplified multi-criteria analysis. Basedon the results, it appears that landfill coverage is the most suitable alternative basedon the simplified multi-criteria analysis and the information that emerged in the lit-erature review. Landfill coverage ranks highest in environmental impact and carbondioxide emissions

"'Jag tycker såhär och då är det såhär.' Det är inte så." : En kvalitativ intervjustudie om lärares interaktionsstrategier i bemötandet av rasistiska, avvikande och kontroversiella uppfattningar

The purpose of this study is to investigate how six students at a Secondary School describes interaction patterns among teachers when students express in a way that the teacher perceives as racist and/or xenophobic, by presenting a qualitative interview study. The interviews were analyzed by two opposing models of value education: the traditional and the constructive model. The results show that students divide teachers in different categories based on five qualities: 1) they listening, 2) they accept students' opinions, 3) they allow discussion, 4) they are knowledgeable and 5) they can express their own opinions. These qualities are included in the value pedagogical model for deliberative conversations, whose strategies for interaction aim to create an understanding of different rules and values, thereby creating skills of rules by using a democratic approach. In contrast to this model, the rule-based moral education, in which the teacher uses his authority and refers to rules without giving an explanation for why they occurred, as strategies.