The so called democratic deficit and the lack of legitimacy have been at the core of the EU-debate in the last decades. Low turnouts in the elections for the European parliament and disapproval in the ratification processes of the latest changes of the treaties are examples of the citizens lack of confidence for the EU and continuous integration. In Nice 2000 the heads of the member states governments agreed to try to improve the democratic legitimacy in the EU and initiated a public debate aiming at proposals for changes in the decision making processes in the EU. In July 2001 the commission published a white paper with their view. A fundamental presumption in discourse theory is that language and language usage not just is a way to deliver information about ideas and behaviours.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the companies on Nasdaq OMXS Large and Mid Cap to see if there are interesting patterns regarding their WACC assumptions, used when performing impairment tests on goodwill, during 2007-2009. If so, can we explain these patterns? MethodWe have gathered information about the WACC assumptions presented in the annual reports of the 133 companies that were listed on OMXS Large and Mid Cap during the spring of 2011. To complement this quantitative information we have also conducted an interview with Peter Malmqvist and contacted eight of the companies that were in the study.ConclusionWe can conclude that not all companies present their WACC assumptions in the annual report, even though IAS 36 states that this should be done. Of the 45 companies that were included in our study, eight had lowered their WACC during 2008 and increased it in 2009.

In many European countries there is an increasing concern about the occasionally high concentrations of nitrate and pesticides in drinking water. The advent of the EU Water Framework Directive particularly highlights this. The directive states that all large drinking water sources should be identified and protected from pollution before 2009 and that by 2015 all water bodies should reach a 'good status'. In Sweden about 60 percent of the drinking water sources have protection areas. This means that about 700 new water protection areas need to be designated before 2009. This will affect many farmers, restricting their farming practices. The purpose of this study was to investigate which methods are used in other countries concerning nitrate and pesticide pollution from agriculture. From this, the expectation was to generate ideas on what could be undertaken in Sweden when designating new protection areas.

The key elements of sourdough fermentation are the presence of active lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeast. Sourdough fermentation originates from the ancient Egypt. One theory concerning its onset states that a portion of bread dough was set aside to be baked at a later date and started to ferment spontaneously.Sourdough may contain a wide variety of microorganisms, mainly dominated by LAB and yeast. There are over 50 species of LAB that has been identified in various sourdoughs and more than 20 species of yeast. Sourdough fermentation has been shown to have various impacts on baked cereal good, most of which are attributed to LAB.This study addresses some effects of LAB from fermented milk products in sourdough and sourdough bread.

The aim of this qualitative study was to examine bereaved individuals? experiences of support from their social networks and participation in support groups. The theoretical framework is based on theories about social support and parts of the attachment theory. Data were collected from four interviews and analysed by the study?s theoretical framework.

Because of a more globalised world the national states have been forced to make structural changes at both national, regional and local level to cope with different challenges. The regional community has become an important area which has resulted in a policy of more self governing, both for the regional and the local level.The aim of the thesis is to study the relation between regional and local level in the partnerships organisation. To fulfil the aim of the thesis, a case study of Region Skåne is used. The analyse is based on expressions such as cooperation, conflict, power and influence.The result of the thesis confirms that the opinion between the regional and the local level is very different. The representatives from Region Skåne experience the cooperation as quite good because it creates an opportunity for discussions and a possibility to learn from the other actors which in turn creates a qualification in the exchange of knowledge.

Den statliga sjöfarten idag är ett område med många inblandade myndigheter och en oklar uppgiftsfördelning. Det är även svårt att se hur väl organiseringen av den statliga sjöfarten är uppbyggd för att klara en kris eller ett krig. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur effektiv den statliga sjöfarten är vid en kris, hur väl kraven för maritim säkerhet uppfylls och hur försvarsmaktens roll i den statliga sjöfartenI formen av en fallstudie med en teoretiskt deduktiv ansats och en kvalitativ textanalys appliceras Graham Allisons organisationsteori och teori om maritim säkerhet på den statliga sjöfarten. Empirin är i form av förordningar, instruktioner och reglerbrev som är ställda på respektive myndighet.Undersökningen visar att dagens organisering av den statliga sjöfarten inte är optimal för att verka vid en kris och kraven för maritim säkerhet uppfylls, men förbättringspunkter föreligger. En slutsats är att en närmare samverkan mellan myndigheterna skulle lösa många av de problem som idag existerar.

This thesis revolves around co-opetition and boundary spanning activities with IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) as research case. The main objective is to through qualitative interviews and a passive observation of email conversations explore how the participants of IETF experience and is affected by a double membership where they sometimes are cooperating with their competitors. Theories states that boundary spanning activities can create role conflicts for these participants when different role-senders, IETF and the employer, send incompatible expectations. We also believe that this can have a negative impact on discussions and the standard development process, which is why we are conducting the passive observations mentioned above.The result shows that the environment of co-opetition is a contributing factor to role-conflicts. These conflicts appear when participants are forced to choose between the role as an employee and the role as an IETF participant.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the institutional effectiveness of the environmental institutions Helcom and the Mediterranean regime, by using Haas, Levy and Keohane's "the three Cs"; governmental concern, contractual environment, political and administrative capacity. The method used is a comparative analysis.This study takes into consideration the specific structural and economic factors that are prevailing in each region where the environmental regime operates. This study also takes into account the influence of the European Union as a factor that affects the environmental progress.By focusing the study on the line of conduct concerning hazardous substances by respectively regime this study shows that the institutional effectiveness is fulfilled in neither Helcom nor the Mediterranean Regime, although Helcom has been more successful. The lack of state capacity is the most restraining factor for both developing countries and countries in the transition towards being developed, to achieve a good environmental status of the sea. This study also shows that the European Union sometimes has a greater impact on the environmental progress in states, rather than the environmental regime in countries that were/are aspiring members, thus showing the ineffectiveness of the regime..

The purpose of the study is to contribute knowledge about the representation of fiction authors who have written in languages other than Swedish in educational school books within the Swedish subject. This is done in relation to the school's promotion of cultural diversity, a globalized world and to the Swedish curriculum. The study is a combination of a qualitative and a quantitative analysis that takes its starting point in six educational books for the courses Swedish 1 and 2. The analysis shows that all study materials include a broad representation of authorships from Europe and the USA. The selection of authors from other parts of the world is, however, limited.

The key elements of sourdough fermentation are the presence of active lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeast. Sourdough fermentation originates from the ancient Egypt. One theory concerning its onset states that a portion of bread dough was set aside to be baked at a later date and started to ferment spontaneously.Sourdough may contain a wide variety of microorganisms, mainly dominated by LAB and yeast. There are over 50 species of LAB that has been identified in various sourdoughs and more than 20 species of yeast. Sourdough fermentation has been shown to have various impacts on baked cereal good, most of which are attributed to LAB.This study addresses some effects of LAB from fermented milk products in sourdough and sourdough bread.

This thesis aims to evaluate the concept of Uncovered Interest Parity. The parity states that the logarithmic difference between domestic and foreign interest rate equals the logarithmic difference between expected future spot exchange rate and the spot exchange rate, . In defining the exchange rate it is often presumed that the parity relation prevails even though several studies suggest the opposite. Numerous economists maintain that the theory?s shortcomings can be explained through the existence of a Risk Premium.

During the later half of the 20th century standard form contracts began to be used more frequently in contract situations. This trend has been consistent and in today?s world numerous commercial parties employ such contracts in their business transactions. The reasons for the extended use of standard form contracts are the benefits that can be obtained for the parties such as time efficiency, effectiveness and price advantages. Standardised contracts often regulate certain issues of the contract for example the way of delivery, remedies and complaints.

Background and problem: The importance of banks was clearly shown during the last financial crises, when the crises that started in the banking sector spread to the rest of the world. This is one of the reasons that this thesis is focused on banks in particular, one other reason is that a lot of previous studies has chosen to exclude banks because of the fact that their balance sheet differ from non-financial companies. This thesis is a beginning in filling in the gap that exists in the knowledge of banks capital structure. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to prove that it is possible to explain the capital structure in banks and that differences in the capital structure of the banks in Great Britain, Sweden and the United states of America exists. Method: The fact that our study is partly a replication of two earlier studies made a deductive approach most appropriate.

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.