Polarization of the Swedish University Sector Structural Characteristics and Positioning

Universities have increasingly been facing a focus on competition for research resources, not the least for external funding. This paper studies structural characteristics of the Swedish university sector and these characteristics relation to the propensity of universities to attract external research funding. The findings show a clear polarization of the sector into ‘Larger research and teaching intensive’ universities, accessing the lion’s share of external research funding, and ‘Smaller education dependent’ higher education institutions. Following from this, the paper discusses specialization and division of labor among universities, in relation to the ability to gain critical mass and excellence in research.

Short-term Abnormal Return in Hostile Takeovers

Purpose: The main purpose of this thesis is to analyse if there are any significant differences in target shareholder return between friendly and hostile takeover bids on the Scandinavian market. We also intend to investigate the differences between hostile and friendly bid characteristics, and determine to what extent these differences can be explained by; firm relatedness, method of payment, time horizon, deal completeness and the acquiring firms’ geographical location. Theoretical perspective: Theories used are partially previous research, partially well known theories within M&A and Corporate Finance literature. Method: We analyse return to target shareholders by calculating Cumulative Abnormal Return using two models; Market Adjusted Return Model and Market Model. We compute CAR for six short-term event windows for Scandinavia, Sweden and Norway. Two types of benchmark has been used, Affärsvärlden General Index (AFGX) and Oslo Stock Exchange General Index (OSLOASH). Empirical findings: Our study is quantitative and based on a sample of 267 public takeover attempts, of which 48 are hostile, during 2000-2010. This sample has been analysed by dummies in linear regressions for Scandinavia, Sweden and Norway separately. Conclusion: Hostile takeovers, compared to friendly takeovers, have created approximately 4,5-8,5 per cent higher abnormal returns for target shareholders, on the Scandinavian market during 2000-2010. The result is statistically significant. No significance has been found on the explanatory variables that have been used in order to explain this over performance

AquaticVID: a low cost, extended battery life, plug-and-go video system for aquatic research

AquaticVID is a low-cost, long battery life video camera system for use in a wide-range of aquatic research applications. The system can be deployed for multiple day recording on a single charge, is submersible to depths of down to 950 m and can be constructed quickly using easily sourced off-the-shelf materials. The system is essentially ‘plug-and-go’, as assembly and preparation for deployment take

Executive Processes Underpin the Bilingual Advantage on Phonemic Fluency: Evidence from Analyses of Switching and Clustering

Bilinguals often show a disadvantage in lexical access on verbal fluency tasks wherein the criteria require the production of words from semantic categories. However, the pattern is more heterogeneous for letter (phonemic) fluency wherein the task is to produce words beginning with a given letter. Here, bilinguals often outperform monolinguals. One explanation for this is that phonemic fluency, as compared with semantic fluency, is more greatly underpinned by executive processes and that bilinguals exhibit better performance on phonemic fluency due to better executive functions. In this study, we re-analyzed phonemic fluency data from the Betula study, scoring outputs according to two measures that purportedly reflect executive processes: clustering and switching. Consistent with the notion that bilinguals have superior executive processes and that these can be used to offset a bilingual disadvantage in verbal fluency, bilinguals (35-65 years at baseline) demonstrated greater switching and clustering throughout the 15-year study period

AquaticVID: a low cost, extended battery life, plug-and-go video system for aquatic research

AquaticVID is a low-cost, long battery life video camera system for use in a wide-range of aquatic research applications. The system can be deployed for multiple day recording on a single charge, is submersible to depths of down to 950 m and can be constructed quickly using easily sourced off-the-shelf materials. The system is essentially ‘plug-and-go’, as assembly and preparation for deployment takes < 30 minutes without the need for technical build or programming skills. All of the electrical components are interchangeable with parts from multiple manufacturers and the camera system can be adapted to fit a variety of waterproof enclosure sizes depending on power and data storage requirements. Here, we describe three versions of the AquaticVID in detail and give examples of above and below water research undertaken with the system. The small size and extended battery times, coupled with ease of use and low cost (US$ 268–540) make the AquaticVID a useful option for numerous aquatic research applications

Syntesrapport av Sekretariatet för selektivt fiske 2014-2017

På uppdrag av Havs- och vattenmyndigheten (HaV), som har ansvarat för regeringsuppdraget selektivt fiske, upprättade SLU Aqua ett Sekretariat för selektivt fiske mellan 2014 och 2017. Sekretariatets huvuduppgift har varit att samla in idéer tillsammans med näringen, för att stimulera utvecklingen av selektiva fiskemetoder i syfte att minska mängden oönskad fångst. Näringens initiativ och engagemang har varit helt avgörande för en framgångsrik utveckling av nya idéer. Under projektperioden har sekretariatet tillsammans med näringen drivit 34 projekt inom selektivt fiske. Samtliga projekt är vetenskapligt utvärderade och redovisade i årliga verksamhetsrapporter. I denna syntesrapport sammanställs resultaten från projekt med liknande problemställningar, målarter och fiskemetoder, till olika fisken. De olika fiskena är uppdelade mellan aktiva och passiva redskap. I sammanställningen har alla projekten bedömts efter en 5-gradig skala som sammanfattar resultatet av den vetenskapliga utvärderingen, redskapets tillämpbarhet i verkligt fiske samt behov av förvaltningsåtgärder och/eller andra incitament för att redskapen verkligen skall komma till bred användning i fisket