This thesis of 15 hp has been implemented at Halmstad University, in collaboration with Saab Dynamics in Linköping. Saab Dynamics is a company operating in the defence industry where competition is tough. This necessitates new ways to increase efficiency in the company, which is the basis for this thesis. Saab Dynamics wants to introduce simulation driven design. Since Saab Dynamics engineers have little experience of simulation, required a user methodology with clear guidelines.

This study presents a survey of the capital budgeting methods used in investment decisions by selected Swedish firms. The study has a qualitative approach where the main goal is to increase the understanding of why firms use ?incorrect? capital budgeting methods like the payback method despite the well known fact that it is one of the most faulty methods, according to literature in business finance (Brealey. Myers). The study has specially researched the impact of company?s size, investments size, ownership structure, branch traditions and political risks influence on firms capital budgeting..

Sweden is a multicultural country and because of this the Swedish school-system should be adapted so that all pupils can develop their linguistic skills so that they can participate andunderstand the education. By using scientific work from other researchers and my own experiences from a general point of view, I noticed that pupils with foreign origin perform less good in mathematics than pupils with Swedish origin, in the Swedish education system.The purpose of this research is to find out if communication and interplay between the pupils makes it easier for them to understand mathematics and its? concepts. My research involves acertain school class were all pupils have another etnicity then the Swedish one. My aim was to find out if the pupils reached the knowledge-goals for mathematics in the third grade.

This thesis highlights starting points underlying the notions of two feminist utopians, Christine de Pizan and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In approaching their texts, it focuses on the notions central to understand their writings. These would be historical, social, and cultural contexts. Defining concepts as utopian in its varying forms and feminism has been of significance. A feministic approach grounded in Simone de Beauvoirs philosophical phenomenology in the study of feministic utopia's visibility, has contributed to the understanding of the power structures to which women are tethered. In order to understand the way women are presented, it has become obvious that The Book of the City of Ladies and Herland are literary works that are related not only by their authors? background and personality but by the society in which they lived. Through their engagement in the contemporary intellectual debate on all social planes, both authors contributed to shifting the focus of their own contemporary notions of a woman to the notion of a woman equal to men. Woman, in Christine de Pizans utopia, is given specific properties and through themes of issues given meaning. She is not free in the sense that Simone de Beauvoir says.  She has a broader repertoire than was historically assigned, but her freedom is not arbitrary, contingent, and temporary and judged by her actions.

AbstractThe work will give the picture of what four- and five-year-olds know about the water cycle in nature and in the society. Is there any difference depending on whether a boy or a girl is answering? The work will as well try to describe a picture of how a pre-school could plan their work on a sustainable society, science, and increased gender equality. To answer these questions the information has been received from interviews with children and by studying pre-school?s local plan.    Earlier research on the area of water shows that it is important before working with a new topic to find out what knowledge the children already have, so that the process could be as worthwhile as possible.

The aim of this work is to give an example of how archaeoacoustics can broaden our understanding of archaeological remains and to further contribute to the almost non-existing research of ringing stones. With a theoretical discussion about sound from three different perspectives and by means of using different kinds of analysis, this essay will show that there are unknown relations between the three known ölandic ringing stones and the cultural landscape of Öland. Possible patterns in the placement of the stones and the possibility of the sound in this soundscape will be investigated. The essay will also suggest a resonant stone typology and discuss the necessity of one. Finally, the intention is also to shed new light upon the discussion on what the uses of the ringing stones might have been..

UGL-courses (Understanding Group and Leader), given in Sweden since the beginning of 1980, are a frequently used leadership course in all sectors of the working life. This essay purpose was to compare course members experienced benefit between two educational organizers. No earlier studies in the subject where to be found. The method chosen was quantitative. A questionnaire was sent to participants in Swedish Defence Forces and The Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees.

Successful diversity management has become an increasingly pressing concern for companies and organisations, as the workforce has grown more diverse over the past few decades. Research on whether increased work group diversity has a generally positive or negative impact on results remains inconclusive. It has, however, been established that good diversity management is pivotal in creating conditions for the successful performance of diverse work groups. Although much attention has been directed towards explaining the translation of work group diversity into positive results, less attention has been given to the processes that underlie this translation and the way it is expressed in everyday leadership behaviour. This thesis revolves around a case study, at the Swedish bank Swedbank, which combines qualitative and quantitative elements to explore the successful leadership in nine diverse work groups at the local branch level.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate how frequently, and in witch ways, theories concerning the "late-modern" society are being used in the contemporary research of social work. My thesis is that theories concerning the late-modern society could be useful in social work research, foremost to shed light on, and broaden the understanding of, dilemmas and problems that are specific to the contemporary society. In the study I'm investigating all doctoral dissertations on social work written in Sweden between the years 2003 and 2006, and to execute the study I've applied a text analysis method in four steps. Simplified the four steps of the analysis can be said to investigate, if, how frequent, and in what way theories on the late modern society is being used in social work study. I'm also specifically investigating how problems exclusive to the late-modern society is being taken under consideration in the dissertations.In the analysis of my results I take a critical theory approach and I also discuss if theories on late-modernity is to be seen as a paradigm in the field of social work science.

The purpose of this study is to increase an understanding of what prevents the mandatory reporting law, based on the preschool staff's approach to mandatory reporting law about child abuse and neglect to social services, and how these barriers affect their decision to report. The study will also understand what preschool staff experience facilitates the mandatory reporting process and what can be done to improve the process even more. The questions of the study were based on the purpose of the study and have been formulated in two questions:What prevents the mandatory reporting law requirements for preschool staff and how can these barriers be removed? What facilitates for preschool staff to be confident in the decision to report child abuse and neglect, to social services?The study used qualitative semi-structured interviews with five people working at the preschool, including two preschool teachers and three childcare workers. An interview guide was designed as a help to answer the questions about what the barriers are and what it is that makes it easier for the preschool staff, regarding the decision to report cases of child abuse and neglect to social services.The results, based on the five interviews , shows preschool staff's thoughts of the knowledge on the mandatory reporting law, the mandatory reporting process, their perspective of the mandatory reporting law and the uncertainty surrounding the mandatory reporting law.The study's analysis consists of the results that have been analyzed using the theory of social representations, in which the analysis shows an understanding of how the preschool staff act and think about the mandatory reporting law requirements based on their everyday knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to form an understanding of how to use the demand for usability and accessibility. Requirements for usability and accessibility are available from several agencies, an example is Myndigheten för delaktighet. Through literature studies, I get answer to what are usability and accessibility and the demands that can be set on a public website. In this study of three municipalities you get a glance how local authorities have been working on their web pages and if they fulfill the requirements so that the disabled would consider that the page has good usability and accessibility. In the interviews conducted in one of the municipalities you will receive information how they plan, organize, implement, monitor and develop their websites.

This essay examines middle school students? understanding of a text read aloud to them in English and the connection between the degree of listening comprehension and the expected increase of vocabulary throughout middle school. The same listening comprehension test was carried out in grades 4, 5 and 6 in a middle school in order to survey differences in English listening comprehension in regard to the ability to reproduce the content of an oral text. The result shows that there was a progression from level to level when it comes to comprehension and the number of words reproduced and that this progression was most noticeable between grades 4 and 5..

This essay examines middle school students? understanding of a text read aloud to them in English and the connection between the degree of listening comprehension and the expected increase of vocabulary throughout middle school. The same listening comprehension test was carried out in grades 4, 5 and 6 in a middle school in order to survey differences in English listening comprehension in regard to the ability to reproduce the content of an oral text. The result shows that there was a progression from level to level when it comes to comprehension and the number of words reproduced and that this progression was most noticeable between grades 4 and 5..

This essay examines middle school students? understanding of a text read aloud to them in English and the connection between the degree of listening comprehension and the expected increase of vocabulary throughout middle school. The same listening comprehension test was carried out in grades 4, 5 and 6 in a middle school in order to survey differences in English listening comprehension in regard to the ability to reproduce the content of an oral text. The result shows that there was a progression from level to level when it comes to comprehension and the number of words reproduced and that this progression was most noticeable between grades 4 and 5..

This essay examines middle school students? understanding of a text read aloud to them in English and the connection between the degree of listening comprehension and the expected increase of vocabulary throughout middle school. The same listening comprehension test was carried out in grades 4, 5 and 6 in a middle school in order to survey differences in English listening comprehension in regard to the ability to reproduce the content of an oral text. The result shows that there was a progression from level to level when it comes to comprehension and the number of words reproduced and that this progression was most noticeable between grades 4 and 5..