The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and propose improvements to the current procedure for cost estimations of purchased maintenance work at Banverket, the Swedish rail administration. This governmental institution is responsible for the procurement of maintenance services for the country?s railroad network through open tenders. Due to the generally low number of contractors, it is particularly necessary to establish accurate cost estimates in order to assess the offers and ensure that a fair price is being paid to the suppliers. Several flaws associated with the current practice are identified and analyzed according to cost accounting theories.

Smoking is a health problem with a negative impact on virtually all body organs. Smoking can cause, for example, lung cancer, cancers in other organs and cardiovascular disease. There is also a social aspect of smoking. If individuals have many smokers in their environment, the risk to start smoking is increased, and for those who already smoke the chance of quitting will be less. Many municipalities today face smoke-free working to reduce smoking and passive smoking adverse effects.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how work by Swedish artist Ylva Ogland (born in 1974) function as an eye-opener for the social marginalisation of people identified with homosexuality, prostitution and drug addiction. Although highly present in reality, these phenomena were historically, and are still today, hidden from view in public discourse. I have focused on the installations Rapture and Silence and Things Seen, and the still-life painting called Xenia. I argue that these artworks carefully represent the above-mentioned marginalised groups, by way of references to comparable motives in the history of art, from neoclassicism in France, to realism and romanticism..

Studies have shown that young people in residential care homes tend to be low achievers in school and are at high risk of entering adulthood with a low level of education. This group has also shown tendency to adverse psychosocial outcomes. The aim with this study is to reach an understanding of how teenagers and young adults view themselves and their future, what ambitions they have in life and how they see their opportunities to realize their goals. The study is based on a qualitative method and was conducted with semi structured personal interviews with five youngsters 15-21 years old in two different residential care homes. The theoretical viewpoints have been based on E.H Erikson?s theory about identity as well as the theory about resilience.The result of this study indicates that the persons we have interviewed have expressed difficulties in describing themselves.

This thesis discusses the representation of bodies in todays non-fiction television in Sweden. I have chosen to focus on deviant bodies (sexual, deformed or unhealthy) on display in reality-shows and documentaries on SVT, TV4 but especially on the commercial channels TV3 and Kanal5. Also discussed are the viewers emotional and bodily reactions. Altough these shows are different from one another in many respects, I argue that there is also a common thread between them. From a sociological and cultural perspective, and with help of some historical examples, I try to illustrate how we view these shows and what their function is.

The recent financial crisis has entailed in a fierce debate whether CEOs variable remuneration has caused unsound risk exposure in public companies. Hence it is considered as interesting to elucidate if this connection exists empirically. With grounding in principal-agent theory, and its implicit assumption of risk adverse agents, this study aims to find empirical evidence for a positively correlated relationship between CEOs variable remuneration and company risk exposure. Through a regression analysis of multidimensional data from 102 listed Swedish companies during the period of 2000-2009, we show that the relationship between CEOs variable remuneration and company risk, in contrast to our expectations, is significantly negative. The coherent result is interpreted as the inherent risk in companies seems to explain the usage of variable remuneration for CEO, rather than vice versa.

This is a study of the reactions of high school students in Sweden when reading A Modest proposal (Swift, 1729). If they get the chance to write whatever they want about the text, what do they find important? This study emanates from Rosenblatts (2002) view of reading out of two different stances: the aesthetical and the efferent. The aesthetical mode is reading for pleasure and experiencing the text, whilst in efferent reading the reader is primarily focused on what he or she will carry away as information from the text (Rosenblatt). To be able to categorize the material from the students more properly, a different set of ideas about reading modes, obtained from Tengberg (2011), is also presented and used in this essay..

The study aims to gain insight into how social workers perceive their psychosocial work environment and examine whether this effects the performance of their duties. The study mainly addresses the shortcomings of the psychosocial work environment of Social Services and the implications it entails for social workers health and wellbeing. The psychosocial work environment includes physical and psychological factors therefore the study's interpretive framework consists of organizational theoretical and social psychological concepts and previous research on the subject. We examined the organizational and social psychological connections to social workers perception of their work environment with a qualitative approach. The empirical data was collected through interviews with four social workers in a municipality in central Sweden using a semi-structured interview guide.

Revisionsplikt i små aktiebolag har debatterats flitigt i affärs- och fackpress i Sverige de senaste åren. Från 2007 är Sverige ensamt bland de gamla EU-länderna (innan utvidgningen 2004) att ha kvar revisionsplikten för samtliga aktiebolag.Utredningens syfte är att beskriva hur en slopad revisionsplikt kan påverka Handelsbankens och SEB:s kreditbedömning av små aktiebolag. För att uppfylla syftet har vi genomfört två intervjuer på respektive bank. Som teoretisk referensram för bankers kreditbedömning används agentteori. Där beskrivs hur asymmetrisk information mellan långivare och låntagare skapar risk för negativt urval (adverse selection) samt osäker lojalitet (moral hazard).

Many product launches are postponed today, however very little research regarding to customer responses to such events has been carried out. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how people react to a postponed product launch. An experimental study of responses to a postponed launch of a mobile phone, a mineral water and a music album is used to investigate customer reactions. The respondents exposed to the postponed launch showed a higher value of reactance. This reactance affects the attitude, purchase intention and perceived quality of the product in a negative way.

Clopidogrel is an antiplatelet substance that prevents blood coagulation in the arteries. It is an inactive pro drug that becomes activated after first-pass metabolism by the liver. The active metabolite of clopidogrel is 2-oxoclopidogrel, which is unstable therefore pharmacokinetic data is obtained by measuring the inactive metabolite clopidogrel acid in plasma. Clopidogrel is taken orally in tablet form. The aim of this project was to develop a LC-MS/MS method for quantification of clopidogrel and its metabolite in plasma. The method has been developed by optimizing the sample preparation.

Hospital Mergers have been proved to be troublesome, the most crucial ingredient is believed tobe the participation of members of the organization on all levels. When the hospital mergerbetween the hospital of Malmö and the hospital of Lund is a fact, it seems clear that knowledgeabout managing motivation is important. The knowledge could also lead to increased possibilitiesto improve support for motivation where needed at the hospital.I have through a literature review created a descriptive model of the theoretical view onmotivational factors for participation in change and their relationships. The theoretical modelwhere then tested in a empirical study in which additional data created a more true model of themotivation on participation at the hospital.The findings of the study show how the descriptive model illustrates how the twodifferent departments both work with a empowering philosophy that have built in properties thatenable the employees to gain more motivation. The model also underline the importance of thecommunication role to enlighten the employee in what, where, when and why the change takesplace.

The purpose of this paper was to study the various organisations that work with drug abusing homeless people in Lund. We have tried to compare the possibilities they have to change the way the homeless people look at themselves. The organisations that we have studied are Aluma, Diakonicentralen, the shelter Piletorp and the social welfare office.The methods used to collect data were interviews with professionals and homeless people as well as reading literature. We have used Ted Goldberg's (docent in social work at the university in Stockholm) theory. He writes that you have to be a significant other to persons with deviant behaviour to be able to help them become a part of the society and to change the way they look at themselves.

The study aims to show how the publicity surrounding the Sweden Democrats have been during November in 2012 when polls for the party rose. The method that has been used is quantitative content analysis and a total of 215 articles from tabloids Expressen and Aftonbladet are encoded. The period of the encoded material has been in November 2012 and the variables have been designed to answer how much publicity Sweden Democrats have received during that period, any topic that the articles touched on, the actors that have been cited, if players have received criticism or praise, how the party looked like and if certain words were used in the articles.The theories of the study are based on agenda setting, priming, ?The spiral of silence? and democratic role of the media. They concern, among other things, how media sets the agenda for what people think is important and how after being exposed to something, subconsciously creates a feedback about the phenomenon.The results show that the Sweden Democrats have received much negative publicity at a time when their poll numbers increase, which goes against the established truth that says that positive publicity is beneficial to the parties while the negative publicity is adverse..

This essay discusses children?s rights and control and system of rules in HVB-homes that provide treatment for adolescences with drug abuse prob­lems or criminal behavior. The results of this study are based on interviews with four persons working in managerial positions on different HVB-homes and shows the difficulties of having a children?s rights perspective in a con­text where a higher level of control is necessary to protect the best interest of the child. The study suggests that the question of balance between children?s right and the need for controlling system of rules needs to be fur­ther dis­cussed to improve, and as far as possible guarantee that these adoles­cence receive best possible care and do not suffer unfair restrictions on liber­ties..