The aim of this study was to examine if performance-based self-esteem, personality (Type A), perceived stress, age and gender predict the value of own or others life-stress (VLS). The aim was also to examine whether the variables were correlated significantly with each other. The investigation was conducted in a town in the mid-south of Sweden. The instrument consisted of two forms where the first measured Type A personality and the second tapped perform-ance-based self-esteem, perceived stress and the level of life-stress. The results showed that the level of life-stress could explain, on the basis of the predictors, performance-based self-esteem, personality (Type A), perceived stress, age and gender.

Publicity is argued to have relatively great impact on attitudes and behaviours of consumer. Especially great is the influence of negative information. At the same time it is likely for brands to be subject to negative publicity. Since companies are investing gigantic sums into buidling strong and positive associations around their brands it is of great economic interest to have a better understanding how negative publicity influence brand equity and what factors might moderate this effect. This thesis focuses on brand strength as a moderating factor of negative publicity.

Publicity is argued to have relatively great impact on attitudes and behaviours of consumer. Especially great is the influence of negative information. At the same time it is likely for brands to be subject to negative publicity. Since companies are investing gigantic sums into buidling strong and positive associations around their brands it is of great economic interest to have a better understanding how negative publicity influence brand equity and what factors might moderate this effect. This thesis focuses on brand strength as a moderating factor of negative publicity.

In this essay, I have examined what has been studied and presented in the theory of ICT in schools. I have based my theory on Arne Trageton?s book Att skriva sig till läsning ? IKT i förskoleklass och skola (2005) and theories on children?s reading and writing development.The purpose of this study is to determine how teachers and children experience teaching with Trageton?s ICT-based model Att skriva sig till läsning and whether the model is beneficial for children's first reading and writing.Through qualitative interviews with two pedagogues from the same school and some children from first grade, I have received answers to my two questions:How do pedagogues and children experience ICT-based teaching in the context of children's first reading and writing?How do pedagogues experience the reading and writing development in first- and second-language students when using ICT-based teaching?The results showed that both pedagogues and children were positive about the model in which the computer was used as a writing tool in learning to read and write. The teachers felt that the model was suitable for all children according to their conditions.The children saw the writing as very enjoyable. For the ICT-based teaching to work properly, the technology has great significance.

Information handling has been a key issue for different companies for a long time. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is used to transfer different business documents from one company to another. This is done in such way that the information itself is separated from how this information is stored and handled in the companies internal systems. As different companies have different systems there is a need for a standardised format for this exchange. There is a big difference between EDI-systems based on what kind of EDI-standard is used. The most common standard in Europe is EDIFACT, but with increased interest of using the Internet for business communication there is a need for a standard that is adjusted for use over the Internet.

The aim of the study has been to investigate physiotherapists? view on a new method of treatment in physiotherapy. In this case we have studied Whole Body Vibration training as an example of a new method of treatment. Semistructured interviews were performed with five physiotherapists. The study was carried out as a qualitative content analysis study.

IASB is currently working with the replacement of IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement. The new standard IFRS 9 Financial Instruments is said to be based on principles as opposed to the more rules-based IAS 39. This thesis examines the third phase of the project regarding micro hedge accounting. The expressed goal from IASB is to provide more useful hedge accounting information by reducing complexity of the standard. To examine the potential effects of the transition from the rules based IAS 39 to the more principles based IFRS 9, we have performed a case study on a major Swedish bank.

n this dissertation a comparison of two evolutionary methods for evolving ANNs for robot control is made. The methods compared are SANE with enforced sub-population and delta-coding, and marker-based encoding. In an attempt to speed up evolution, marker-based encoding is extended with delta-coding. The task selected for comparison is the hunter-prey task. This task requires the robot controller to posess some form of memory as the prey can move out of sensor range.

This project investigated the current market regarding wireless net and the communication between the tools used for diagnostics/maintenance and an embedded system. Based on documentation obtained through interviews a demo system was created based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication between an embedded system and an Android device.This report intends to describe the tools and methods used in the design of the demo system and the result of an analysis of the BLE communication.Bluetooth Low Energy is an exciting protocol with wide applicability within the industrial field. This project investigated the communicational possibilities between a Smartphone and a Raspberry Pi and based on the results that emerged the conclusion can be drawn that BLE is a protocol with many beneficial applications within industrial IT..

This paper deals primarily with the developmental potential and use of court -based mediation in Swedish law, and its relation to court-based conciliation and the judicial procedure as means to end a conflict.  In Chapter 42, Section 17 of the Swedish Code of Judicial Procedure, a judge, before the parties have their main hearing, can act as a mediator between the parties to settle the dispute. The judge should, according to the law, always try to make the parties come to an agreement before the main hearing. This obligation can be fulfilled either through the use of court-based conciliation, or court based mediation. Mediation as such is rarely used in Sweden, and one of the goals of this essay is to try to provide a tentative answer to why that might be the case.  The second goal is to try to find a consistent, yet flexible notion, of the concept of ?jurisdiction?, and to provide an explanation for the relation between mediation as an alternative method for dispute resolution and the judicial procedure.                                                                                                                                            .

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka huruvida ett samband finns mellan institutionellt ägarskap och svenska företags utdelning. Om ett samband råder är avsikten att med statistisk signifikans säkerställa sambandet utifrån olika ägarkategoriseringar. Undersökningen baseras på 2007 års resultat av 261 företag på Stockholmsbörsen och NGM Equity Resultatet påvisar ett signifikant negativt samband mellan ägarkategorierna alla och övriga institutioner. Försäkringsbolag, pensionsrelaterade företag och fondförvaltare har ett negativt samband som inte går att statistiskt säkerställa. Resultatet kan tolkas utifrån två olika ägarstrategier, aktivt och passivt ägande, vilket medför att de har olika synsätt på utdelning..

Techniques used in the building of a number of ships from the Mediterranean will be presented in this paper. The two techniques thnat will be discussed are shell-based technique and skeleton-basedtechnique. An attempt to clearify and delineate the transition between these two techniques will be made. The possible reasons for transition will then be described and discussed. The development ofthe techniques is going to be identified with help from four wrecks by analyzing their edge joineriesand this facts will be used as a basis for a chronological presentation.

This thesis investigates management accounting systems in a Swedish health care environment. Through a qualitative case study of an activity-based cost accounting system that was introduced in 1994 at S:t Görans Sjukhus, a large Stockholm hospital, the following questions are addressed: What benefits can an activity-based cost accounting system offer the Swedish health care providers? What are the potential problems impeding the implementation of such a system? Main findings: an activity-based cost accounting system can improve the understanding of where costs are generated in the production processes. Comparisons between alternative production processes are improved, and the data may serve as a basis for internal pricing measures. Concerning the second question, difficulty in reconciliating the principles of economic control with the culture present in a hospital is identified as the main obstacle to a new management accounting system..

The use of mobile devices has increased dramatically in recent years and the development of newtechnologies has made it difficult for developers to know what screen size and device the visitor isusing. This has resulted in the fact that today there is a problem with the interface for web pages onmobile devices. They are not adapted to the flexibility required for the interfaces to be recognizedon various mobile devices. Instead of developing two separate web pages, where one is designed formobile devices and one for desktop and keep them both continously updated, responsive webdesign simplifies the work process. Responsive web design is a flexible and dynamic interface thatadapts to mobile device and screen sizes.

The aim of this master thesis is to evaluate the performance of the content-based image retrieval system ImBrowse from a semantic point of view. Evaluation of retrieval performance is a problem in content-based image retrieval (CBIR). There are many different methods for measuring the performance of content-based image retrieval systems, but no common way for performing the evaluation. The main focus is on image retrieval regarding the extraction of the visual features in the image, from three semantic levels. The thesis tries to elucidate the semantic gap, which is the problem when the systems extraction of the visual features from the image and the user?s interpretation of that same information do not correspond.