Generally, the economic health of Swedish roundwood truck transport companies has not been good. Profitability is important for maintaining the stability in the transport business, which is a condition for long-term transport planning in the forestry sector. The scope of this study was to identify probable factors influencing the profitability of roundwood truck transport companies and quantify the influence of these factors on economic results. The study was carried out at a major roundwood truck transport organisation in mid-Sweden and was implemented in four steps. In the first step economic results from the haulage contractors were collected and a random sample was taken from accounted net margin for the account year 2005/2006. In the second step hauliers were interviewed to identify probable success factors. At the third step data for identified factors were gathered through a questionnaire.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the Swedish model with attention to core values over time, as well as, explain recent changes. It examines changes of the social insurance system, with focus on political reforms in the unemployment insurance, health insurance and family policy, during the last two decades. The thesis is empirical but although a discourse amount political theories and normative conceptions.Conclusions are that the normative basis in the Swedish model contains general equally and uni-versally designed rights and consensus on growth and development as well as a strict focus on an employment oriented society. Important values have also been dialogue between actors as well as accountability, even if these facts appear to have declined in recent years.Relating to three leading theories in political philosophy - utilitarianism, Rawlsian communitarian-ism - explores the directions in later year political reforms. The results show that later years changes seem to go in relative strongly utilitarian direction.

Abstract (magisteruppsats, 61-80p)This paper is concerned with the national sentiments in the Federal State of Germany,regarding the east- and west-German cleavages, since the unification of the country in 1990.The point of departure is the nationalistic theory crafted together by the scholar AnthonyDavid Smith, which implies an ethno-symbolistic perspective on the dynamics of nations.The main question in the paper is to which extent you can consider the East- and WestGermans to be a unity, considering the past and the forty-year-division. For this reason theauthor basically uses two different sources: scientific books and the German journal DerSpiegel.Founded on Smith's theory, the study contains a broad explanation for national identities incontemporary states, which ranges from pre-modern times, when the ethnic communities werecreated, to the national world of today.The discontinuity of the German case, represented by the separation 1949-90 of the Germannation into two entirely different societies, makes it possible to draw conclusions about whichfactor that has the pivotal impact on national identities.The result turns out to be that the national historical core-values and symbols of the currentGerman state and nation are more profound than the splitting national sentiments. Thus theGerman nation is likely to recover from its Cold War break-up.Keywords: German unification, A. D. Smith, Nation and nationalism, National identity, DerSpiegel.

The society of today is dependent of secure transports and deliveries of electrical power. Interruptions in different activities because of fallen trees cost a great deal of money in form of reparations and claimed damages for transport companies and electrical suppliers. Fallen trees along some railway sections are a severe problem. For instance, to repair the damages of the storm of week 5 year 2002, costed 2 800 000 SEK for the line region of Hässleholm. Today, the Banverket railroad company has no norms in general for how close to the railway the forest is allowed to grow.

SAMMANFATTNING Mitt examensarbete utgör ett led i Nordiska Genbankens (NGB) uppgift att skapa en nordisk s.k. ?core collection? av rabarber, Rheum rhabarbarum L. Samlingar finns även i våra nordiska grannländer Norge, Finland, Danmark och Island. I Sverige har ett insamlingsarbete av rabarber pågått under åren 2002 och 2003 för att komplettera en äldre samling.

The purpose of this essay is to acquire variables that explain and may be used as a base for wage estimation in the private sector in Sweden. The factors that are assumed to have an impact on wage estimation are based on earlier Swedish and international studies. Business survey data, which is based upon monthly questions to firms in various sectors of the Swedish economy posed by the Swedish National Institute of Economic Research, will be analyzed to find out weather they have an impact on Swedish wage settings or not. Tests including business survey data are yet rarely frequent, why this essay will be some kind of a pioneer within the area. To estimate significant factors that influence wage setting in Sweden, three different wage equations have been modeled and tested with a regression model.

This master?s thesis studies library teaching at two university libraries, Freie Universität Berlin in Germany and Södertörn University in Sweden. The aim of this paper is to study views on information literacy, how these views affect teaching practice, and how the teaching of information literacy is connected to, on the one hand, German and Swedish learning culture and, on the other, the local community of practice at the studied university libraries. The theories applied in this paper are learning culture and community of practice as developed in the works of Judith Ricken and Etienne Wenger. The methods that have been used are qualitative, semi-structured interviews that were conducted at both university libraries.It was observed that the teaching practices were highly connected to learning cultures.

Using the example of 55 former towns in Greater Poland, the author investigates the belief thattowns formerly deprived of town privileges are the most likely to be qualified as future formalurban entities. This paper approaches the subject of urban deprivation and restitution with amultiaspectual study of the concept of urbanity. Since a preponderance of Polish degraded townspossess a prominent urban physical structure, the study focuses mainly on urban morphology as acontributing factor to urbanity. Other approaches include the central place theory, demographicconditions and the role of urban perception. Taking into account Poland?s shifting geopoliticalhistory the study also seeks to identify and explain spatial patterns of varying degrees of urbanityamong the studied towns.

The explosion of information technology has given users direct access to an ocean of information. Increased availability puts increasing demands on the ability of students and researchers to search for, filter, and structure information. In response, the role of the research library has shifted from being primarily an information resource to being an educational resource with a focus on teaching users what is known as information literacy. This thesis is a study of user-education at the Karolinska Institute Library KIB, the largest medical library in the Nordic countries. KIB has invested significant resources in developing user-education, and has a full-time user-education developer and a formal pedagogical platform for user-education.

Forestry supply chains are a significant part of the Swedish economy. These supply chains are highly susceptible to storms damage. In late 2013 Sweden was hit by multiple storms. This leads to the possibility to research how supply chains react to the shocks that storms cause. The aim of this thesis is to research the costs that storms increase, the actions that are taken within the forestry supply chain, as well as possible benefactors from storms. This thesis bases on previous work on supply chain mapping and cost theories.

The objective of this study has been to examine which significant values are of importance in the telecom sector today, and in a continuing perspective yet to be. To ensure the factors of relevance in the study, we have identified three purposes: - Our first purpose is to clarify the eminent values in the competitive market of the mobile phone operators today, and the reason for its importance.- The second purpose is to understand the function of the brand regarding to value creation and loyalty in the sector of mobile phone operators.- The third purpose is to explore the potential approaches for mobile phone operators to increase value.In this study, our approach has been a qualitative methodology by conducting seven interviews with respondents related to the telecommunication sector.As a result of the process, we find the need to divide the concept of value into two dimensions, which we entitle organizational related values and customer related values. We have found the values related to the characteristics of the market in aspects of its infrastructural features but also in regards to the homogenous core service.Our findings in the empirical data with support to our theoretical frame of reference, is the current highly important organizational related value of constant high result quality (well-functional technological aspect), and the value enhancer by a low price; the strategy of bundling also results in higher value. This result in customer related values that perceives as safeness, availableness and convenience. The brands are a significant source of customer related values with identity value, image value and assuredness. A continued advancement in process quality and individualization will imply greater customer related values of closeness, freedom and flexibility. .

The knowledge development regarding in-store marketing has shown that influencing a consumer in a store setting is a powerful tool to change the consumer?s buying patterns. However, the store as a marketing channel lacks, in many ways, conducted academic research and according to marketing theory investments into in-store marketing tend to be taken without advanced marketing consideration. As a consequence, we have chosen to generate new insights into the field of in-store marketing by studying in-store demonstrations both from a behavioral and a mental dimension. Furthermore, we have also chosen to study how different consumers with different degree of loyalty and buying patterns are influenced by an in-store demonstration.This study aimed to obtain a better understanding of in-store demonstrations through breaking down the demonstration into its core elements and from these elements construct different types of demonstrations.

In these days of globalization, with a higher level of openness and interaction over geographical, cultural and economical borders, the importance of the company?s intangible asset, its brand, is gaining importance as a differentiating factor. Building a strong brand and the emphasis on strategic brand management is something that before was given less attention in firms but today we can see a general increase in awareness and relative emphasis in the strategic work of companies.Countries as brands: Is it possible to consider a nation or a country as a brand the same way you consider a product? Well, looking in to the subject it seems to be a rather complex matter and there are many questions to be asked and answer. Nations around the globe are indeed marketing and positioning themselves for several purposes.

It has been roughly 86 years since Gunnar Myrdal?s book ?The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory? was published, in which he declared economic thought and theory as being established by hidden ideological premises. As well as accusing modern economic theory of being the subject of a pseudo-scientific construct. As such, this study seeks to test Myrdal?s critical view on Swedish economic education in upper secondary school.

The aim of this paper is to elucidate and analyze history teacher's didactic choices in the conflict between unequal educational materials and the requirements of equality in the curriculum of Swedish secondary school. The empirical data consists of interviews with five secondary school history teachers, observations of their lessons as well as analysis of their tests. The starting point was to investigate teachers' didactic work in the role as a bridge between the non-equal historiography presented in textbooks in history and the curriculum?s demands for equality. Three different approaches have been observed in the teachers' didactic work when considering gender perspective into their teaching: that women become extensions in a male-dominated historiography; that another part of the story is presented when a gender perspective is considered; and that the gender perspective is included in history teaching and becomes an integral part of all the content of the subject.Several of the teachers acknowledged that gender equality is less prioritized than the courses core content and related assessment criteria.