The Swedish government has made the decision to transform the talking book system from an analogue system to a digital system called DAISY by the end of 2004. The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how public libraries are affected by this system change. This is carried out by studying the current situation in public libraries concerning the transition to DAISY. This qualitative oriented study is primarily based on interviews with four librarians and three library managers at six public libraries. Management by objectives is here seen as a suitably theoretical framework since public municipal libraries are partly regulated by the governments goals and laws.

During the last 20 years, the Swedish health care system has faced major changes. One of them is the increasing pressure to generate economic profit due to private businesses entering the market. Health care units are forced to make some structural changes in order to become effective and efficient. As a result merger and acquisitions has become a part of the health care sector, and seems to be an increasing phenomenon. Mergers and acquisitions have mainly been studied in the industry.

Background: An evaluation of analysts´ forecasting ability is interesting since their estimates constitute an important part in stock valuation and investment decisions. The recent years´ development in the stock market has lead to criticism of analysts? deficient forecasts. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate analysts´ forecasting ability concerning companies quoted at Stockholmsbörsen between 1987 and 2002. We also intend to discuss possible explanations for analysts? behavior in case of deficient accuracy.

Prognostisering av makroekonomiska variabler är betydelsefullt för många individer i en ekonomi, inte enbart för politiska beslutsfattare. Samtliga beslut som tas i ekonomiska sammanhang grundar sig på våra framtida förväntningar om variablerna och kommer ständigt att vara förknippade med osäkerhet eftersom framtiden obönhörligen är oviss. För att underlätta beslutsfattande är det därmed nödvändigt att vidareutveckla metoder för att generera prognoser som är så tillförlitliga och rättvisande som möjligt. Bland de viktigare prognoserna är de som visar framtida inflationsförväntningar eftersom dessa tillsammans med den faktiska inflationen påverkar hur Riksbanken sätter styrräntan. Inflationsnivån och förväntningar på denna är något som påverkar såväl relationen arbetsgivare- arbetstagare som relationen långivare- låntagare.Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om prognostisering av den svenska inflationen kan förbättras dels genom att använda ett mått på BNP-gap som förklarande variabel, dels genom att tillämpa en metod för interceptjustering.

During the 90s most companies organized and adopted routines for their environmental work. This work included for example eco-efficiency improvements and the introduction of environmental managing systems. At the UN conference in Rio in 1992 the concept Sustainable development was defined, but it was not until about the year of 2000 that companies in Sweden shifted their work from environmental management to sustainable management. A consequence of this is that they now have to focus on environmental aspect in conjunction with social and economic aspects.The purpose of this study is to gain understanding of what a change of focus to sustainable development means for companies. Has the environmental work suffered in the competition with social/economical aspects under the new sustainable focus? How will the new way of working affect the balance between environmental and social aspects? Changes were studied in five companies by analysing their annual-, environmental- and sustainability reports and through interviews of sustainable managers.

In this thesis an energy analysis of ethanol production at the ethanol plant of Lantmännen Agroetanol in Norrköping has been performed. The ethanol plant has been studied in combination with Händelöverket, the combined heat and power plant which provides the ethanol process with steam. The purpose of this study was to determine the energy consumption for the whole production chain from grain to ethanol. The analysis has included the energy consumption for cultivation of grain, production of chemicals, the production chain for wood chips, the steam production and the ethanol plant. The grain and wood chips are both considered raw materials there for the energy content in these are not included as energy input in the system.

In this thesis an energy analysis of ethanol production at the ethanol plant of Lantmännen Agroetanol in Norrköping has been performed. The ethanol plant has been studied in combination with Händelöverket, the combined heat and power plant which provides the ethanol process with steam. The purpose of this study was to determine the energy consumption for the whole production chain from grain to ethanol. The analysis has included the energy consumption for cultivation of grain, production of chemicals, the production chain for wood chips, the steam production and the ethanol plant. The grain and wood chips are both considered raw materials there for the energy content in these are not included as energy input in the system.

BACKGROUND & During the last century, the Swedish chemical industry has developedPROBLEM: considerably in regard to respecting the environment. Following various discharges and pollutions during the first half of the 20th century, environmental concepts such as CSR, Responsible Care and REACH have developed in order to improve the situation. Today, environmental issues play a central role in the society, but what are the reasons behind this increased environmental commitment? PURPOSE & The purpose of this thesis paper is to study the driving forces behindDELIMITATIONS: the increased environmental awareness in companies. Is this mainly due to stricter legislations, or do factors like pressure from the general public, the industry or customers play a more vital role? Furthermore, do economic incentives exist, that make it interesting for companies to invest in environmental awareness? Since the chemical industry spans over a wide spectrum in regard to environmental issues, this paper will focus on a specific area of the industry.

Our aim with this study is to explore socialworkers perception of what is a good treatment is and how to establish good relationship with their clients. We have decided to limit our study with social workers in Economic assistance and Abuse Units in social servises and explore if we can discern any differences between the units. We have chosen to use qualitative methods to achieve the aim of this study. We interviewed a total of seven social workers, of which three were from Abuse unit and four were from Economic assistance unit. One of the theoretical frame we have used is Goffmans (1970, 1974) theories about social interaction in which he explains the social encounter between social workers and clients.

I Indien är skillnaderna mellan pojkar och flickor påtagliga. Pojkarna ska försörja familjen när de blir vuxna, medan flickor ska giftas bort, ibland långt innan de har blivit vuxna. Detta märks tydligt på skillnaden i kvantitet skolgång som de får. Pojkars skolgång prioriteras framför flickors och för bara några år sedan skilde det över 20 procentenheter mellan läs- och skrivkunniga kvinnor och män. Det har visserligen blivit bättre på senare år, större och större andel flickor får börja skolan, men det är ändå fortfarande betydligt fler pojkar än flickor som skrivs in i skolan varje år.

Energy efficiency has become a very topical issue that has been discussed throughout the European Union for preventing negative environmental impacts that have been associated with the consumption of energy. In the residential sector have mainly municipalities set strict requirements for the reduction of energy consumption while the renewable energy has been asked. Different concepts of low-energy buildings have been developed to reduce the cost of operation and maintenance in existing buildings such as in new ones.This thesis has aimed to minimize the energy cost of a large building which has had low energy consumption features originally. Energy reviews has been initiated in order to be able for showing how the house electricity could be carried out even more efficiently.The work was initiated through a literature study to clearly increase the reliability on the energy subject. Different concepts of low-energy buildings have been treated in connection with its specifications, afterward those have been compared with the obtained results.

This study analyzes 66 Swedish actively managed mutual funds investing in the Swedish stock market during the period 2005-2014. The purpose is through pooled data regressions analyze the relationship between both the mutual fund?s annual fee and risk-adjusted return to the fund?s characteristics. The characteristics of the study are the size of the fund's assets, age, if the fund is bank managed or not, Tracking Error, and standard deviation of return.By using the performance measures of CAPM, Fama and French 3-factor model, and Carhart?s 4-factor model monthly risk-adjusted returns are created for all funds over the period.

Introduction: How to implement and integrate cultural aspects in strategy making and planning in order for cities and regions to reap both social and economic benefits has been widely discussed in recent years. This method of working with culture, both as an economic, as well as an identity strengthening tool has come to be labeled as cultural planning. But in order for these ideas about cultural projects and institutions to become a reality, something has to be done. This is where the entrepreneur enters.The Glass Factory, a newly opened cultural establishment in the heart of the Glass Kingdom in Småland, Sweden, became the subject of empirical investigation for this paper. As this originally was an initiative from Emmaboda municipality the planning and start-up procedure could be viewed as a cultural planning process.

The purpose of this study is to map out and to analyze the spatial variation of female representation at the national level in established democracies. The aim is also to explain the variation in the female representation. The main questions that the paper tries to answer are:1.How does women representation in established democratic parliaments vary?2.Why does women representation in established democratic parliaments vary?This study is a comparative and statistic study, i.e. a study that includes a bigger number of countries and where quantitative analysis methods are used in order to achieve comparative analyses.

This paper relates a debate on a book Vetenskapen och förnuftet (1986) written by the Scandinavian philosopher Georg Henrik von Wright (1916 - 2003). The book brings up fate of mankind, raising the question if human rational thinking and scientific achievements are threatening our very existence on earth. Shortly after the book was published, it was intensively debated in a leading Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. Some 20 leading politicians and scientists contributed with their criticism during spring 1987. The paper highlights this debate by writing reception history, describing how the book with its serious message was received by leading scientists of the time.