The aim of this study was to investigate whether a direct shift inpostural alignment results in changes in voice source characteristics. Ninemales with untrained voices were recorded standing in ideal posturalalignment and in the deviant postures swayback and kyphosis characterizedby extended hips and a slump back respectively. The voice source wasderived from the audio signal by inverse filtering. The parameters pulseamplitude, maximal flow declination rate, level difference between the firstand second voice source partials, closed quotient and the normalizedamplitude quotient in relation to subglottal pressure were compared betweenideal postural alignment and swayback and kyphosis respectively. Resultsindicate an impact of changed postural alignment on the voice source.Swayback posture gave significantly less pulse amplitude and maximal flowdeclination rate and significantly higher subglottal pressures thus resulting ina less effective phonation.

Since the emergence of social media websites as an established part of our society, the landscape ofcommunication has undergone dramatic changes. Especially in the field of journalism, the impact ofsocial media websites, such as Twitter, has been the subject of discussions about the actual partsocial media play in communication and news reporting. The general opinion has been that socialmedia has revolutionized the way we communicate and that a shift in power is taking place as themasses now engage in, and affect, our societies way of spreading information. This study is acritical discussion about whether Twitter in particular, and social media in general, has affected thejournalistic field in the extent that many claim it has. By comparing theories about traditionalmedia, such as television and newspapers, with recent studies about Twitter, we conclude that it isto early to establish the role of social media.

The purpose of this ideology critical study is to investigate the hidden content in the reform Gy11 and compare it with the concept new public management. After the clarification of the hidden content, we compare the structure of the organization in Swedish high schools with the structure in public sector called new public management. The main questions of this study are the following: Is it possible to see the foundation of new public management in the Swedish high schools when it comes to the views of knowledge and the formation of goals? Which similarities can we find when we look at the organization new public management and the Swedish high school?The result showed many similarities, both regarding the views of knowledge and the formations of goals. The structure of new public management has been largely implemented in the Swedish high schools and the schools now focus more on instrumental knowledge rather than universal knowledge based on understanding.This is not surprising due to the social progress.

 Heterosexual individuals who live in a culture of honor are exposed to honor oppression in today?s Swedish society is well known. However, it is not equally recognized that LGBT-people from a culture of honor are exposed to honor oppression. The study aims to investigate how eight individuals belonging to the LGBT-group and the culture of honor feel about their ability to develop their true identity and live out their sexual orientation. The study is qualitative and the collected empirical material constitutes of chat interviews with young LGBT-people.

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.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how theory and practice intertwines through theactivism of the feminist punk performance collective Pussy Riot. I have also focussed on the political tools with which the activism is performed. Within the academic context of gender studies, I believe there is a need for research that aims to reduce the gap between scholarly and activist feminism. The theoretical framework for the analysis in this essay consists of material feminist theory and postmodern theory. The empirical material is a diversified assemblage of images, court excerpts, newspaper columns, interviews, lyrics and videos.

This study is based on an ongoing debate regarding the Stockholm Stock Exchange, which centers around the possible abolition of quarterly reports. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this debate by examining how the relationship between financial reports and stock price correlates. The study's methodological approach is based on the Capital Market Research frame-work in which an ERC model and an extended model are used to measure the relationship. Three hypotheses were formed to categorize the direction of the study, these categorizations treats the differences in impact between quarterly and annual reports on stock price, as well as differences in impact as a casual effect of company size and seasonal sensitivity. The results of the study show that quarterly reports have a stronger impact on the share price than annual reports.

I denna uppsats redovisas en studie av hur svenska idrottsföreningar på landsbygden påverkas av de samhällsförändringar som intåget i det postmoderna samhället har medfört. Det studerade datamaterialet har samlats in genom kvalitativa intervjuer och därefter analyserats genom forskningsmetoden grundad teori. De informanter som deltagit i studien är alla själva verksamma inom idrottsklubbar på små orter, och denna uppsats ger en inblick i deras erfarenheter som förhoppningsvis kan bidra till en ökad kunskap om hur svenska idrottsföreningar på landsbygden kan komma att utvecklas inom de närmaste åren. Resultaten avslöjar att de studerade föreningarna upplever stora problem vid rekryteringen av såväl nya medlemmar som ideellt engagerade tränare och styrelseledamöter. Dessutom påvisar studien en pågående konflikt mellan stad och landsbygd som i synnerhet berör resursfördelning och politisk prioritering..

There is a known link between relative deprivation and street crime among market liberal countries. Although some research has been done with cross-national data, there is none to suggest that the observed link is as valid in a country well known for its extended welfare and generous social expenditure like Sweden. The following study uses longitudinal data to see if this recognized link between relative deprivation and street crime also stands in a country with almost a century long tradition of striving for social-, economic- and cultural equality. Even though Sweden, over the last decade, has been subjected to a series of deregulations due to policy changes at national level, and with a following rise in inequality, it is still considered to be one of the most equal countries in the west. It is therefore not unlikely that the high degree of social security will reduce the negative impact of relative deprivation on social relations among its citizens, perhaps enough so that the correlation will be significantly weakened.

Global Software Development (GSD) is based on a geographical distance where teams are spread throughout the world. The related research have for a long time addressed the challenges presented by geographical distances. GSD is basically a necessity for many businesses to use in order to reduce development costs, reduce production time and to maintain high quality. The study aims to investigate the relationship between the reality of a specific maintenance project. Thus, our research question: How do distributed maintenance teams experience temporal, geographical and socio-cultural distances? To achieve the purpose of the study, we chose to perform a case study of a global consulting company which recently started a new system maintenance project.

Veterinary hospital care and advanced veterinary services are rapidly growing industries. As of January 1, 2010, veterinary nursing became a licensed vocation, the title of veterinary nurse became protected, and the act regulating competence among the professions of the veterinary field was extended. These changes, along with increased demands and expectations from owners, have given rise to greater demands on the staff's qualifications and have increased the need for well-educated staff with expertise in several different areas. The aim of this study was to find out what the licensed veterinary nurse can do in terms of rehabilitation for the hospitalized equine patient suffering from orthopedic injury. This has been carried out through qualitative interviews with veterinary surgeons experienced in treating such patients, and also by reviewing the relevant literature.

This study examines the connection between social capital and involvement within voluntary associations; involvement is defined either as being a member in an association or a member who has some kind of assignment in an association. The study also examines if there is a difference between two social economic groups regarding the attainment and transformation of social capital through being involved in a voluntary association.Social capital is defined as social trust and the willingness of collective action.The result of the research shows there is a slight connection between the involvement in voluntary associations and social capital. It shows that people who are members of a voluntary association often have higher social capital than those who are not members of any voluntary association at all. The study also shows that there is a difference in attainment of social capital between those who have some kind of assignment in a voluntary association and general members.When studying social capital and involvement in voluntary associations it is also of interest to take social class into the analysis, because the study shows that people with a lower education had increased social capital when they were members in an association compared to the members with a higher education..

The goal with this thesis was to look at various aspects of how teachers and students perceived the use of various texts in the collective teaching context in which they are participants. The purpose with that was to provide insight into aspects of the didactic processes that the texts and the usage of them are part of and demonstrate aspects of both the conditions and the opportunities for teaching conducted within the surveyed education. The essay analysis is based on interviews with four teachers and twelve students in a total of four teaching contexts (within subjects: Swedish and SO/Religion) about texts they worked with during a selected period of work.The essay is based on a theory of Kathleen MacCormick and Torlaug Hoel Lökkengaard where reading and writing are described as both an individual cognitive process and a common cultural process, impossible to completely separate from each other. The students description of their use of the texts show how they are influenced by teachers culture of teaching, in turn, influenced by the curriculum. In relation to Wiksten Folkeryd, af Geijerstam and Edling research on students movability in texts in the Swedish school, the survey shows some of the aspects that enable students to develop a higher level of movability in texts within the subject Swedish.

CSR har växt fram i samband med att ansvarslöst företagande uppmärksammat och allmänhetens medvetenhet kring sociala frågor ökat. En del småföretag i textilindustrin har positionerat sig som etiska och miljövänliga. Ledarna i dessa småföretag har styrt företagen utifrån värderingar som är kopplade till deras personliga värderingar. Syftet med studien är att belysa hur små modeföretag som implementerat CSR i konkurrensstrategin hanterar problemen som uppstår vid ledarens avgång. För studien har en kvalitativ undersökning valts.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the attitude towardscomics among librarians as well as their personal image ofthe overall attitude towards comics among librarians and themanner in which the attitude of the librarians affects how thecomics are treated in the library.I have performed this study with a qualitative approach andhave interviewed a total of five librarians working in twodifferent libraries.I have founded the theoretical base for my research in anumber of historical attitudes towards comics and thencompared these attitudes towards the answers given in theinterviews as well as prior research found in three theseswritten by Magnus Johansson, Sarah Johansson and KarinEsaiasson.The results of the study is that traces of most of thehistorical attitudes can be found among all of the interviewedlibrarians but that none of them are harboring any negativeattitudes towards comics themselves. On the other hand thestudy does imply that the image of the librarian who onlythinks that comics are meant for children is still very muchalive in the collective subconscious of the librarians.The study also shows that while librarians of today tend tohave a neutral outlook in comics the historically subpartreatment of comic in the libraries and the subsequent lack ofacademic support on the subject have made it necessary forthe librarian in charge of the comic-section to have apersonal interest/liking for comics to be able to do a goodjob..