The production costs have steadily increased within the construction industry during the 21st century. Voices are raised meaning that the construction industry is too unsuccessful in making the production more efficient and to develop it?s way of working. One way to deal with the production costs is to minimise the waste, with waste meaning activities that doesn?t add value to the finished product.

Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this paper is to describe how a number of strategically selected employees at the Swedish Institute, with the purpose to promote Sweden in the world, look at the challenges facing Sweden concerning nation branding in the new era of cooperation within the European Union. I examine how these people look upon the work of public diplomacy and nation branding in order to actively participate and influence the EU's common communications platform.Material/Method: The method used in this thesis is qualitative interviews. The reason why I chose this method is because I consider it to be the most appropriate in order to collect information about how these selected employees at the Swedish institute regard the challenges that lay ahead in terms of nation branding within the European Union.Main results: On the basis of the results I have gained by dint of the analysis, it can be concluded that it is of utmost importance to take the societal changes, which are a result both of the worldwide globalization and the EU cooperation, into consideration when designing a future communication strategy for the Swedish Institute. The nation-state continues to play an important role in Sweden, but its importance is declining as the EU cooperation is progressing. The citizens? identity plays a crucial role in designing a nation?s communications strategy, and from the analysis I conclude that we move not from a Swedish to a European identity, but towards a pluralistic union where multiple identities meet under one umbrella; the EU..

When the Eolshällproject was completed for the first time, a great deal of moisturedamage was discovered. Therefore the structure completion was removed andreinstalled. The project was originally planned to cost a total of 126 million SEK, but thefinal costs landed on 271 million SEK. What caused this failure? Were the designs poor,was the technology used too advanced, or was the project not managed properly?Based on the Eolshällproject, theses will be presented about what may have caused themoisture damage.

Trading financial securities at stock exchanges and other authorized market places is today a particularly important socioeconomic phenomenon in many industrialized countries. A well functioning securities market is crucial for the economic development in these countries. The modern trading with stocks and other financial securities is characterized by the fact that the majority of the transactions at the stock exchanges are carried out through various intermediaries. The ultimate counterparties that are involved in a securities transaction (the seller and the buyer) are often unknown to each other. The anonymity in the securities trading implies several interesting legal problems.

Vole populations in northern Scandinavia vary in cycles with peaks every third or fourth year as described by the National Environmental Monitoring Programme of small mammals (NEMP). Some vole species have declined in population numbers since the NEMP started in 1971, especially the grey-sided vole (Myodes rufocanus) which is nearly extinct in the forested region. Since small mammals are an important food source for several avian and mammalian predators, the decline in vole numbers is expected to have consequences for the whole food chain, especially if other vole species start to decline in numbers. This study tried to test the hypothesis that presence and abundance of M. rufocanus (a specialist species) and Myodes glareolus (a generalist species) can be predicted by patch size and connectivity of forest patches >60 years old with a minimum of 15% pine >100years old.

In this thesis I discuss about economical and political transition in countries that is consecutively being induced by influential external actors. Looking closer on the role of the EU as a dynamic transitional force, with the intention of examining to what extent the EU can pursuit its interest and modify the economical as well as the political structures of transition countries. With relations to four transition states on the Western Balkans, more precise Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro and Macedonia (FYROM), I have examined the influential position of the EU. Another feature that is discussed is the approach of the EU and the cause of it in respect to the Western Balkans. Since the end of the crises in Kosovo the EU was given the leading roll in stabilizing and reconstructing the Western Balkans.

Today around 28 000 women originally from countries where FGM is practised, are living in Sweden. Many of them are at childbearing age which means that knowledge about FGM and its consequences is of outmost importance during delivery. The aim of this study is to describe current research on how to manage the delivery, regarding deinfibulation and the following stitching as well as the risk of complications when the labouring woman is mutilated. This review of literature is based on 12 scientific articles published between years 1989 ? 2005.

The aim of this study is to describe how the cooperation between franchisee and franchisor evolves over time. The parties? work responsibilities are explored as an ingredient of the cooperation. Creation of relational aspects is also studied, as well as how adaptation of the concept is handled throughout the partnership. This study takes on an abductive approach and is based on interviews with franchisees of one franchise system, performed at different stages of the respective cooperations.

This thesis examines the problems related to IT in the Swedish healthcare system, specifically the drug searching part of the electronic healthcare systems used in Sweden. The question formulation is divided into two questions: What parameters and functions are of greatest importance when performing a search on drugs, and how should these be presented in a graphical user interface? Thus the purpose is to answer these questions through developing a design concept, in the form of a prototype, which describes how a drug search can be carried out.The entry point is a central quality checked drug database that is managed and owned by Swedish county councils and regions. The problem is attacked through user-centered methods where interviews of physicians and developers, in conjunction with observations, are used to give an overview of the problem area as well as to specify a requirements specification for the prototype that this thesis aims to develop. The thesis result is a requirements specification in combination with a prototype that exemplifies how drug searching can be performed, the prototype is based the requirements gathered from the interviews with the user group of physicians..

It appears from today's debate about the quality of social work and addiction treatment that largely focuses on the impact of recent various interventions in the hope of being able to alter social work's role in society and also the organizational structure. The debate points to a part of the 1970s social welfare debate. Today's aspirations to establish an evidence-based practice can hardly be expected to solve the social services basic dilemmas is that it always have to do something, despite the many times you cannot get clear instructions on which funds should be used by law or science. Even if you follow the rules and practices based on scientific studies should the importance of various key initiatives to remedy deficiencies in social service work with addicts in large part depend on how, in these initiatives define the term "evidence-based practice" and what steps will be indicated for to develop practice. My starting point was to explore how evidence-based social work in connection with medication-assisted treatment for opiate addiction look, which evidence-based interventions Social Services currently uses in connection with medication-assisted treatment for opiate addiction, as well as how to work with it in the ordinary course of business. The study showed that social services have become better at using these methods in recent years and that today there are more tools available than before.

An accounting issue that has received attention is the issue of identification of intangible assets in acquisitions. This is because the company's result can be different depending on how much the company chooses to identify intangible assets separated from goodwill. As the practice for identification of intangible assets lacks clarity, companies are able to account for this in different ways. In this study, the manner in which identification of intangible assets are managed by companies listed on Swedish multilateral trading facilities and the manner in which companies distribute the purchase sum on net tangible assets, intangible assets and goodwill in comparison with listed companies is examined. The study emanates from a systems approach and is descriptive.

The Swedish retail business has been characterized by a small number of ruling distributors. These distributors have been affected negatively by the internationalization which has made it possible for international distributors to establish their stores in the Swedish market. These international distributors are focused on low price stores. Their establishment on the Swedish market has led to a decrease in market shares for the Swedish distributors, which has damaged their profitability. Another change that has affected the Swedish distributors is that the behavior and needs of the customers has changed.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine literature on current media events. We see a close relationship between this literature and the media society where we relate Manuel Castells theory of the network society. In this thesis we have chosen books which give different views on three major media events in Sweden: 1 the assassination of Anna Lindh, the former Swedish Minister for foreign Affairs; 2 the Knutby murder and; 3 the Tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. These books combine fact and fiction in their writing which in media science is called faction. This form of writing has similarities to genres like new journalism and documentarism and can be problematic for the reader in terms of genre expectations because of the mix of fact and fiction.

The aim of this thesis is to study the market for fantastic fiction in Sweden, focusing on the minor publishers and their relationship with the three major publishing groups. The fantastic fiction in Swedish today are generally dominated by bestselling anglo-american authors, especially at the major publishers. The selection of fantastic fiction that is not originally in English and that diverges from the classic, epic high fantasy is often provided by minor publishers. By researching the range of fantastic fiction in Sweden today, and combining that research with qualitative interviews with informants from five minor publishers and Sweden's largest book shop for fantastic fiction, I wish to examine if the minor publishers provide an important alternative for Swedish readers of fantastic fiction. I also intend to investigate whether those publishers actively try to broaden the Swedish market and if they see themselves as a complement and an alternative rather than competing with the major publishers.This is a study in sociology of literature, focusing on a literary genre that is generally regarded as popular or trivial literature.

The aim of this study is to investigate differences that exist in Estonia and Russia with regard to civil society, democracy and corruption and try to find out what can be possible causes to the vast differences in these two countries. Many political scientists claim that civil society plays a key role in democratic transitions. This paper takes its point of departure in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Estonia and Russia became independent. Since then Estonia has had a flourishing economy which attract many foreign investments, with Sweden as the greatest investor. The country has also managed well to adjust quickly from totalitarianism to democracy.