AbstractEssay in Political Science, C ? level, by Ylva Björkegren, spring semester 2008. Tutor: Anna Spånning. ?Sida from a liberal feministic perspective.

This essay is about democracy and how a democracy index can be used as a tool to illustratethe gap between reality and ideal. The purpose of this study can be expressed by two researchquestions: Does the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) democracy index illustrate thedistance between reality and the ideal of democracy presented by Dahl? and Can the EIU'sdemocracy index be modified by a) internal adjustments and b) using the variables includedin World Economic Forum?s (WEF) equality index?By using a combination of theories (Dahl?s theory of democracy, Rawls theory of justice andchosen theories critical to liberal democracy) as an analytical framework the following twoquestions have been answered:1) Which of the variables included in the EIU's democracy index have the potential to capturethe level of political equality?2) Which of the variables included in the WEF?s equality index have the potential to capturethe degree of political equality?By using a quantitative method the study?s third and last question has been answered:3) How strong is the rank correlation between the EIU?s democracy index and the WEF?sequality index, that is; how strong is the rank correlation coefficient (rho)?The data presented by the WEF?s equality index indicate that women are systematicallydiscriminated against as a group. From a democratic perspective the EIU may need tomeasure inequalities at a group level in order to capture the lack of political equality betweenindividuals. By reformulating some of the EIU?s variables, by revising the EIU?s point systemand by using the variables included in the WEF's equality index to extend EIU?s democracyindex, the chances of capturing the gap between reality and the ideal of democracy presentedby Dahl would likely increase..

In today?s changing environment, creation of projects by organizations has become more common. The problem is, though, that the knowledge of the subject is still limited which causes many projects to fail. This has made it extra important to have a good project manager whocanlead the project in the right direction. While doing this both the project method and the project manager?s motivation are contributing sources.

Betting under ordered forms has been around for a long time, but the recent increase in Internet betting and the large sums of money that are now involved makes it even more important for betting companies to have correct odds. The purpose of the essay is to calculate probabilities for outcomes of football games using a statistical model and to see if you can find better odds than a betting company.The data contains the 380 games from the 2004/2005 season and the variables form, head-to-heads, league position, points, home/away, average attendance, promoted team, distance and final league position from previous season. After performing an ordered probit regression we only find the variable ?form of the away team? to be significant at the 5 % level. We suspect the presence of multicollinearity and perform a VIF-test which confirms this. To fix this problem we perform a second ordered probit regression where a number of variables are combined to index variables. In the second regression we once again find only one significant variable.

Forecasting stock market returns is an interesting topic since more and more Swedes enter and invest in this market. Theory implies, however, that such exercises should be impossible. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the possibility to forecast future stock returns by looking at macroeconomic variables? history. The study is limited to the Swedish market as it is based on the OMXS30-index which represents the 30 most exchanged stocks on Stockholms¬börsen, the Swedish stock exchange.

The society today, reflects a high welfare, where the human being has a better financial position than before. This has generate that more money is spend on pleasure and events. A result of that can be the development of a new line of business; The industry of experience.This kind of branch is fast growing in the Swedish labour market. The characteristics of this branch are, depending of trends, continuous variations and integrated education.A new phenomenon within this branch is ?Centre of experience?.

The main objective of this study is to divide a number of colorectal cancer cases into subgroups based on their molecular features using cluster analysis. The data used is supplied by a research group at Pathology, the Department of Medical Biosciences, Umeå University, and consists, after some preparation, of 455 observations which is a larger data set than many similar studies. The molecular variables that the clustering is based on are CIMP (CpG Island Methylator Phenotype), MSI (Micro Satellite Instability), BRAF- and KRAS-mutations. These are categorical variables and consequently the clustering method used is PAM (Partitioning Around Medoids) which is particularly useful with data on diverse variable level. The final analysis results in four subgroups that are represented by different combinations of attributes on the aforementioned variables.

Strong relationships are something that is really important for companies to succeed with, in purpose to increase and protect their market shares. After major research on the subject, it has been found that variables like exchange of relationship, trust, control mutability, satisfaction and commitment are important in the establishment of measuring a relationship. The purpose with this thesis was to: increase the knowledge on how companies measure, and then consequently evaluate, their relationships. To answer the purpose of the study we chose to do a case study at Stadium AB, which is a retailing concern with a high level of customer contact on a daily basis. The conclusion is that trust most likely is the key variable in measuring relationships.

Our social lives and where we live shape our choices in life. One of those choices is which party we vote for in the general election. The aim of this thesis is to see if there are any connections between the Swedish general election of 2010, demography, socioeconomic factors and geography. This is done with regression analysis and chosen variables. Another aim is to see where in Sweden the chosen variables aren?t enough to explain the results of the election.

This thesis gives an introduction to securitization in general and the tranching of collateralized debt obligations in particular. It does this by using a firm-value model to simulate the underlying portfolio via monte-carlo simulations.The simulations in turn give a loss-distribution from which the various tranchings of the CDO?s are derived. To get an understanding of the influence of different variables involved in the tranching the simulations are repeated several times where the portfolio variables are changed to generate different tranchings. This to give a understanding of the influence different variables have on the tranching and consequently risks involved in CDO?s in particular but also general risks and problems of securitizations..

The main objective of this study is to divide a number of colorectal cancer cases into subgroups based on their molecular features using cluster analysis. The data used is supplied by a research group at Pathology, the Department of Medical Biosciences, Umeå University, and consists, after some preparation, of 455 observations which is a larger data set than many similar studies. The molecular variables that the clustering is based on are CIMP (CpG Island Methylator Phenotype), MSI (Micro Satellite Instability), BRAF- and KRAS-mutations. These are categorical variables and consequently the clustering method used is PAM (Partitioning Around Medoids) which is particularly useful with data on diverse variable level. The final analysis results in four subgroups that are represented by different combinations of attributes on the aforementioned variables.

In this essay i argue that there are three different variables that may be able to control the outcome of certain foreign policy choices. These three variables are External Threats, government division and public opinion. The Essay also tries to identify former president Bush motives behind the 2003 Iraqi War. It is partly argued that the three variables had a certain amount of influence on Bush decision making process. But the main focus lies on the motives behind the attack.

The bachelor's thesis is to examine the explanatory factors affecting the choice of capital structure in real estate companies. The analysis is based on data collected from the main financial reporting from 2007; all listed real estate companies listed on Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish stock market. Based on previous research and theories, we have defined five independent variables that are linked to the debt ratio, which are: profitability, growth, firm size, cost of debt and operational risk. The statistical tests have resulted in that we can say with certainty that profitable firms tend to have a lower debt to equity ratio. We can also say with certainty that property companies with high interest costs have a high level of indebtedness..

The main objective of this study is to divide a number of colorectal cancer cases into subgroups based on their molecular features using cluster analysis. The data used is supplied by a research group at Pathology, the Department of Medical Biosciences, Umeå University, and consists, after some preparation, of 455 observations which is a larger data set than many similar studies. The molecular variables that the clustering is based on are CIMP (CpG Island Methylator Phenotype), MSI (Micro Satellite Instability), BRAF- and KRAS-mutations. These are categorical variables and consequently the clustering method used is PAM (Partitioning Around Medoids) which is particularly useful with data on diverse variable level. The final analysis results in four subgroups that are represented by different combinations of attributes on the aforementioned variables.

The main objective of this study is to divide a number of colorectal cancer cases into subgroups based on their molecular features using cluster analysis. The data used is supplied by a research group at Pathology, the Department of Medical Biosciences, Umeå University, and consists, after some preparation, of 455 observations which is a larger data set than many similar studies. The molecular variables that the clustering is based on are CIMP (CpG Island Methylator Phenotype), MSI (Micro Satellite Instability), BRAF- and KRAS-mutations. These are categorical variables and consequently the clustering method used is PAM (Partitioning Around Medoids) which is particularly useful with data on diverse variable level. The final analysis results in four subgroups that are represented by different combinations of attributes on the aforementioned variables.