Human capital is professional service firms' most valuable resource and its quality is closely linked to the quality of its services. The purpose of this study is to investigate how professional service firms appraise their employees. A comparative study between an architecture firm and a management consulting firm is conducted with the aim to identify and explain similarities and differences in performance appraisal. Two qualitative case studies are performed and interviews as well as documents are used to explore the area. The thesis builds on a critical perspective and it has an explorative approach.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how nuns regard reading. The reading of the Bible is a regular element in their everyday life. This study however, focuses mainly on the nuns? self-chosen reading beyond the reading of the Bible.

Swedish agriculture has gone through big changes in the latest 60 years. The farm sizes have increased, which has led to raised tractor and machinery sizes and therefore increasing problems with soil compaction. A method to reduce these problems is to implement controlled traffic farming, CTF. All field operations are then concentrated to specific tracks by using GPS guidance. The aim of this work was to study how the tillage regime, with or without CTF, affects the soil, with the main focus on macroporosity. In Säby close to Uppsala, and Alnarp close to Malmö, randomized block trials has been carried out, and the data has mainly been taken from these trials.

Persons suffering from Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) struggle with complications within the functions that regulate and control the brain activities, due to deficiencies in these functions within the affected nerve-paths. ADHD is a cognitive function impairment characterised by inattention, impulsiveness and over activity. According to Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV), certain diagnostic criteria of ADHD must be fulfilled in order for a person to be diagnosed with ADHD. The everyday problems caused by ADHD are individual and medication can have positive effects relieving the person?s impairing behaviour.

Domestic weekly magazines in Sweden are characterized by an emphasis on practical editorial material such as cooking recipes and knitting patterns, and also contain a comparatively large share of reader material. This makes it possible to study the readers through texts produced by themselves. The aim of this study of columns of readers' tips on domestic work is to analyze how readers embody a specific femininity centered around the woman as responsible for the home, in the sense of everyday maintenance as well as aesthetic development. The author defines this femininity as "home maker". The theoretical framework for the analysis is the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu, and Jonathan Potter's and Margaret Wetherell's model of interpretive repertoire is also used where modality is discussed.

The purpose of this study is to examine the implementation of the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, CEDAW, in Uppsala local council and county council. The aim is to examine how the respondents, in their daily work, understand and implement the convention as well as how they consider the prerequisites for a successful implementation. The study was conducted using qualitative interviews with three civil servants and four politicians. The theoretical approach was implementation theory whose concepts willingness, comprehension and capability were used as tools for the analysis. The results portray CEDAW as a well-known treaty amongst the respondents but at the same time absent in local politics and everyday work.

What affect if an incident is reported?- an interview study with nursesABSTRACTEveryday in health care, there are incidents which can harm patients. However, reporting these incidents is not always a positive experience. The number of incident reports which are documented are a lot fewer than the number of incidents that actually occur. The purpose of the present study was to describe factors that affect nurses? decisions on whether to report an incident or not.

The purpose of this essay was to examine the different aspects of motivational work with active heroin-using clients from a social workers point of view. The further purpose of this essay is to also examine what the advancements and discouraging factors in such a motivational work might be. To attain this purpose we focused on these following questions:What might motivational work with active heroin-using clients look like?According to the social worker, what factors constitutes for a beneficial progress in the engagement of motivational work with active heroin-using clients?According to the social worker, what constitutes for discouraging factors in the engagement of motivational work with active heroin-using clients?We chose to do a qualitative study by conducting separate interviews with six social workers working in a social services agency, all of whom are working with drug-addicted adults. We then analyzed the answers by using an abductive research strategy, testing the collected empirical data against our chosen theoretical perspectives.

The purpose of this study was to within a Swedish context and from five persons of foreign descent stories study how they have been affected by interpreting for their parents during their childhood and how this has affected the relationships within the family. Studies conducted in an American context have shown that children interpreting for their parents in everyday situations are prone to undertake roles similar of a family leader. Previous studies also show an increased danger of depression among children who interpreted for their parents. The study was conducted by the use of semi-structured interviews with five male respondents with a varying ethnic background. Using Antonovsky´s theoretical formulation ?sense of coherence? we were able to determine that although our respondents during their childhood were subjected to a large amount of stressful elements they also maintained a high sense of well-being.

Every year begomovirus infections cause severe constraints to the tomato production in Nicaragua. Extensive yield losses are followed by large economical losses, both for the country and the single farmer. During recent years the use of begomovirus resistant or tolerant tomato cultivars has increased in Nicaragua as an effort to improve yields. Still, begomovirus infection is a large threat to the tomato production. Therefore, ongoing work in Nicaragua is focusing on finding new, better, begomovirus tolerant or resistant tomato cultivars.

It has long been discussed how to use music in a new way in the field of food and elderly, and in this study, the authors wanted to test this. Music is the language of emotions. It?s a powerful tool, but its effects are difficult to predict (Theorell, 2009). Malnutrition in the elderly is a serious condition that often gets overlooked (Edfors & Westergren, 2012).

This thesis examines young people's thoughts about their presence on social media. With asocial constructive approach the study focused on how young people think and act on socialmedia in relation to constructions of gender and normality. The analysis is based on fourgroup interviews with 13-year old boys and girls. The theoretical approach is based partly onsocial constructionism where discourses and ideas of normality are identified and analyzed.Erving Goffman's theory of social interaction was central to illustrate how young peoplepresents themselves based on the prevailing discourses. It is clear that they adjust theirrepresentations of themselves depending on the context.

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Postoperative wound infection is the third most common nosocomial infection in Sweden. The ever-growing problem of antibiotic resistance provides surgical departments a big challenge when it comes to preventing the spread of infection. Operating theatre nurses have a vital role in the prevention of infection. In addition, correct ventilation in the operating theatre is of great importance. The caregiver is responsible for quality assurance of ventilation in the operating theatre, but the work can be delegated to other staff within the department.

The aim of the study is to investigate what pupils in grade 1 think about reading aloud, reading alone, the selection of books, and the significance of reading. A subsidiary aimwas to examine the relation between the pupils? experiences of reading in the home andtheir ability to discuss a text they have read. A sidetrack in the study aimed to see whether the pupils? experiences of reading in the home affected their outlook on readingin general.

A survey was undertaken to understand sheep management, breeding practices and selection criteria for Red Maasai sheep in Maasai pastoralist communities in Kajiado District, Kenya. Differences between North and South Kajiado District were investigated to gain knowledge about farmers having different prerequisites and how it can affect the sheep production. The reason for keeping sheep and the specific breeds show the multiple objectives of the Maasai farmers. Adaptive traits, such as resistance to diseases and droughts, and productive traits, such as increased growth and carcass weight, were both ranked highly. In addition to this, the sheep has a social and traditional value in Maasai culture.