This thesis aims to examine the possibility of understanding social change by using new institutionalism approaches on a specific case, The case, which describes the implementation of new public management reform in the Swedish health care system, is analysed from two separate new institutionalismperspectives; the tool perspective and the symbol perspective. These approaches differ from one another in the sense that the first relies on a rational choice ontology, while the latter rather refers to a sociological tradition. In the analysis, causal explanations as well as aim related explanations are presented. Formative moments such as economic stagnation, non-socialist governments and ideological isomorfism are presented as important factors behind the reformation. By using the tool perspective, the motives of the idea spreading and reformation of the Swedish health care system, are connected to a strictly rationalbasis such as cost efficiency and quality improvements.

This thesis has been carried out within the bachelor program for mechanical engineering at Karlstad University in collaboration with BAE Systems in Karlskoga. The purpose with this work was to design a mechanism and associated parts for loading and unloading of shots between primary and secondary magazine in BAE's new 40mm's ship gun.Parts designed or redesigned among other things a transfer mechanism for shot at loading and unloading, well as a hatch mechanism which makes the shots do not fall out of the primary magazine when making separate use. Various important details have been designed to maintain a good functionality of the mechanism.The construction work has mainly been carried out in the CAD software Solid Edge and its associated FEM module. The construction work has also been carried out on rough calculations for constructed details in order to ensure that they meet the stringent requirements of military use in tough marine environment. Two of the most critical parts of the structure where analyzed with the FEM module for estimating the stresses in the material at the applied load.The final design, which is a result of the thesis, meets the requirement specification and the set targets.

This thesis aims to develop a theory in the under researched field of international comparative cultural policy studies. lt does so by combining theories from the fields of political scienceand cultural studies, researching how and to what extent the concepts of culture of different states have an impact on the way cultural policies are constructed.The thesis uses this theoretical development in order to research a specific problem, namely the perceived possibility that Swedish and German cultural structures are slowly converging. Two recent official policy documents from each country are the objects of study. Through comparative idea analysis and with Michiel S. D Vries theories on decentralization, the thesis explains the convergence between the countries by differing cultural views between them.

NMD 100 is a notes and media dispensing machine, manufactured by De La Rue Ltd, located in Flen, Sweden. The customers, mainly bank offices, have expressed a need for a more comprehensive description of errors occurring from time to time in their machines. In order to acquire a BSc-degree in Computer and Electronics Technology at the University of Linköping I have carried out a diploma work, regarding new computer programs to fulfil the customers? wishes. The machine NMD 100 is connected to its PC through handshaking.

Within system development users have rarely been involved or received much attention during the development. Most of the times, the primary focus within system development lies on insuring functionality, rather than making the system usable. The literature specifies that a non user-centered approach can contribute to a product with low usability, which can lead to an ineffective and unsatisfactory experience for the end users.The purpose of this thesis is to begin an investigation to see if the use of non user-oriented system development methods is a possible cause of low usability in the final system.To achieve the purpose of this thesis, we have conducted a case study. Within the case study we examined the usability of a time reporting system. The case study included seven minor studies; an investigation concerning the development of the system, an expert evaluation of the system, interviews and observations of users, developed paper prototypes and executable prototypes, both which user testing was performed on.The result of this study shows that by working with user-entered methods, the usability in the time reporting system increased after the design had been revised.

This master thesis is intended to give an increased understanding of the stress state in an axle, which is assembled in one of Atlas Copco?s mountain drilling rigs. The main problems investigated were how the axle is affected when the bearing is worn, when the pretension is varied, and how to dimension the axle. Answers to these questions were found by using hand calculations, practical testing and with Finite Element analyzes. The dimensioning of the axle is currently based on the bending stress, but the author?s opinion is that the axle should be dimensioned considering the equivalent stress.

Sweden is the country that has got the largest amount of elderly in the adult population in the world. The physical activity level decreases as we grow old and we experience muscle mass loss and a bone density reduction. This leads to an increased risk for falls and subsequent fractures. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether an exercise program could affect muscle function and balance ability to prevent falls. 17 women (age 64-79) participated in this study and was assigned to a control group (n=7) and an intervention group (n=10).

This Independent work is about testing a method to create meaningful learning and a deeper comprehension in matter of basic hairdressing techniques. I got the idea for this method by reading literature related to my education to become a teacher for hairdressers, the new schoolreform and from my own experience of a teaching method that I saw an opportunity to develope. My teaching method was based on first teaching the pupils the basic techniques, and then give them an assignment were they were to find out their own final result by using a picture for inspiration. They were given an assignment description with certain frames but with freedom of choice how to get to their own final result. By making a job description and a headdrawing to show how the work should be done, and during the process try different ways to achieve the best result, my idea was that a deeper understanding and a feeling of meaningfulness would appear.The result shows that the pupils by freedom within frames experienced meaningful learning and thereby deeper understanding when it comes to basic hairdressing techniques.

The activity of interest groups in the political process of the European Union has given rise to a broad debate concerning the effect on European democracy these groups have. As relatively powerful political actors, the question of these groups? views on the EU and how the union should be is an important one. The status of these groups owns democratic representation also affects the democratic status of the EU. Being based on a number of theories, this study adopts an ideology analysis for the purpose of testing these theories on two cases ? the Swedish environmental organizations World Wide Fund for Nature and The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.

Since criminality started to rise steeply in most western welfare states following the second world war the relationship between welfare support and criminality has been debated. For a period of time thought to be an effective preventive measure against crime welfare support has since from time to time come to be seen by some as ineffective and in some cases even as a contributing factor to the rise in crime. It remains a contested issue as new theories, such as social support theory, which is employed here, attempt to contribute to the understanding of what effects general welfare has on overall crime levels. As a connection which is relatively well-researched in the USA, altough still not yet fully understood, this study strives toward a better understanding by testing the relationship in a swedish context. The relationship might not function in the same way considering that the US is a fundamentally different welfare-regime than Sweden, liberal and social-democratic respectively.Untangling the relationship is attempted by employing a multivariate regressionanalysis on a crosssectional dataset consisting of data from 2012 covering 247 of Swedens total of 290 municipalities.

Payday loans are becoming a challenge of increasing gravity for society. Statistics show that the number of young adults with financial issues related to such loans has been growing over the past few years. Despite efforts to halt this trend, little is changing. Government mandated warning labels in commercials are typically used to inform about the risks associated with the consumption of certain goods and services, such as alcohol and tobacco. Despite issues related to payday loans, there is currently no legislation in Sweden mandating the inclusion of warnings in marketing of such loans.

This thesis is written at WSP management and investigates the practice of pre-project planning and feasibility studies at Swedish construction companies, through the study of the ongoing feasibility study of the mall Sturegallerian in Stockholm, and through interviews with experienced project managers in the construction industry. There is currently a big span in the way Swedish construction companies plan the pre-project phase and the aim of this thesis is to present a more generic and standardized way that helps minimize project risks and maximize efficiency and profit. The result is a generic model which can be used in pre-project planning. The model describes the phases in the preproject planning process and the activities that span these phases. Is also describes the categories of professions that need to participate in the preproject planning group and which activities that each profession executes. The other result is a list of factors that need to be considered for a well performed pre-project phase, as found during the interviews. Among others the thesis stresses the importance of involving the client as a key participant in the process.

The purpose of this essay is to discuss and compare different ways of learning new words and expanding your vocabulary in a foreign language. This is done by an examination of relevant literature and available research, as well as by an empirical study with two upper secondary school classes, in which two different methods are put to the test: one traditional method of the kind that is found to be most common in second language acquisition, and one designed to take existing research into account. The results show that, although effective in the initial stages of acquisition, the traditional method, where words are learned in isolation and via translation to L1, results in a very limited form of knowledge. A big part of the words acquired via this method is also forgotten soon afterwards. The other method, where words were learned and tested in its proper context, was found to result in a broader form of vocabulary knowledge, covering more aspects, and that remained over time.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the occurrence of Cosmetic Earnings Management (CEM) among Swedish companies. CEM refers to the small upward rounding of reported net income to reach cognitive reference points. Important cognitive reference points are multiples of ten (N*10^x) of reported net income and rounding towards these has been documented in other markets around the world over the last 20 years. The occurrence of CEM on the Swedish market is studied using digital analysis, frequency testing and Benford's law. Firstly, reported net income of publicly traded companies between 1996 and 2010 is examined.

This report describes how to process audio signals in real time with a digital signalprocessor. The digital signal processor used in the thesis and described in the reportare the Blackfin processor ADSP-BF537 from Analog Devices.In the body of this report there is theory of the processor characteristics and thevarious programming languages used. All experiments that were made on theprocessor are described, these descriptions also help in understanding the annexeswhere the experiments will be presented. The body of this report also describes theprogram used to do experiments. Testing the CPU limit was done and the results arepresented to get a good view of what it can handle.