In a time when milk producing farm businesses face decline in profitability it is of great importance to examine how the situation can be improved. This thesis is a study off efficiency in milk producing farm businesses represented by Swedish, Dutch and German farms. The aim of this study is to investigate whether any differences exist between companies in these countries. Moreover, the study includes a mapping of a number of factors that determine how efficient milk production can be managed. This mapping is based on a literature review on prior efficiency studies followed by qualitative interviews with milk production advisors as well as a questionnaire sent out to dairy farmers in Sweden.

Aim: The aim of this study is to describe which messages and by which rhetorical means were communicated in political TV-advertisement in Finland and Sweden. The study also aims to analyze how the rhetorical choices were influenced by the political and social context in these countries.Material: Two TV-commercials from the latest parliamentary elections in each country were chosen. The leading left-wing and right-wing parties were chosen from each country.Theoretical perspective: This study is based on theories on political parties? vote maximization and the development of the modern electoral campaign.Methodology: The method used in this study is rhetorical analysis.Results: All commercials had similar themes and were characterized by a low level of conflict. This is related to the common Nordic context in the two countries.

The key purpose of this research has been trying to understand, and study how assyrian/syriac youth create their identity under the influence of two or several different cultures. We have also looked upon how different factors such as history, religion, language, family and school play a role in the youths identity development.We have used a qualitative method in our study where we have interviewed six assyrian/syriac youth. Because of their Christian faith the assyrian/syriac group has been forced to migrate from their countries to different parts around the world. In the new countries the group has been forced to create and live in a diasporaculture. The city Södertälje in Sweden has developed to become a metropole for this ethnic group where they have founded a substantial diasporaculture.

This document presents calculations of adjusted GDP based on satellite household accounts for the year 2001 with the purpose to compare adjusted and official GDP for Sweden, Germany, Estonia and Finland. Household production in each country is estimated using time use survey data from Eurostat and a monetary value is estimated using average wage (after taxes) for each country. The results indicate that the value of household production using this methodology increases GDP with between 42% (Finland) and 55% (Germany) compared to official GDP statistics. A comparison of GDP/capita between the countries included in the study shows that the GDP/capita in Germany increases more that the other countries due to the relatively high proportion of time used for household production (mainly German women) combined with a high average wage. In fact, the results show that Germany has higher adjusted GDP/capita than both Finland and Sweden (but Germany has lower GDP per capita when official statistics is used for the comparison).

An increasing number of automotive supplier companies are investing in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in order to gain cost advantages. This has happened in a rapid pace since many of these countries did not have any foreign direct investments (FDI) at the turn of the century. The problem now is for how long these countries will be able to maintain the low costs. One purpose was to create a model of country advantages for automotive supplier companies when relocating further production to CEE. This dissertation was written in cooperation with the Trelleborg Group.

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..

AbstractPolitical Science, level III thesisSpring semester 2010Author: Emelie AlfredssonSupervisor: Tomas Mitander"A Changed Leadership? - A study of the EU leadership from a institutional standpoint, related to multilateral environmental negotiations"The EU has for a relatively long time considered itself a leader in the environmental policy area as a whole as well as in multilateral environmental negotiations. This study attempts to classify and identify the European leadership with the purpose of relating it to the institutional framework of the Union. The treaties of the European Union decide its ability to act and its institutions the right to engage in different policy areas, the environmental area being the focus of this study. With the recent ratification of the Lisbon treaty this study aims to make out if the type of leadership the Union showed during the Kyoto negotiations has changed with the new treaty, into a new type during the COP-15 meeting in Copenhagen.

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..

Today every organization is committed to some kind of environmental scanning in order to get necessary knowledge of the world around them. The acquisition, organization and storage of information in combination with a strategic use, is today an important factor for a successful organisation in any sector of our society.In this Master thesis I have studied how an organisation such as The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) handles its information resources. I have also looked at the flow of information within the organization. The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise is Sweden?s largest business federation representing 50 member organizations and 55 000 member companies.

The National Libraries task to save and preserve the national cultural heritage has turned to a new challenge in a digital world. The preservation of born-digital material for future use requires not only saving the digital object itself but also information about the object, preservation metadata. This is a relatively new issue and the library community has very little experience in this area. It has become evident that international cooperation is necessary to solve the task and that the development of international standards is of fundamental significance. This thesis investigates what has been done to meet the problems with the fast obsolescence of digital material with the focus on metadata.

BACKGROUND: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a slow progressive disease affecting the family caregivers by limiting their lifestyle. Subsequently the situation can be experienced as stressful for both the afflicted and the relatives. To easier understand the needs of the caregivers of family members suffering from COPD have, it is important to get an insight into their experience of every-day life, so that medical staff can help, support and promote their health according to their needs. AIM: To illustrate caregivers? experiences of living with a family member suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

The aim of this study is to investigate differences that exist in Estonia and Russia with regard to civil society, democracy and corruption and try to find out what can be possible causes to the vast differences in these two countries. Many political scientists claim that civil society plays a key role in democratic transitions. This paper takes its point of departure in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Estonia and Russia became independent. Since then Estonia has had a flourishing economy which attract many foreign investments, with Sweden as the greatest investor. The country has also managed well to adjust quickly from totalitarianism to democracy.

The purpose with this paper is to examine if tertiary education and democracy have an impact on economic growth. In order to decide how democratic the examined countries are the democracy index constructed by The Economist is used. Besides the two central theories the purpose is also to explain why these variables could affect growth and to examine direct and indirect effects. Indirect effects mean that one variable affects another variable which thereafter has an impact on economic growth.34 OECD countries are compared in order to investigate whether education and democracy are strongly correlated with BNP per capita. Therefore a statistical design is used as method.The empirical results suggest that there is significant correlation between democracy and economic growth.

According to the national legislation concerning discrimination within labour law, it is prohibited to discriminate on the grounds of sex, ethnic belonging, religion or other religious belief, functional disability, sexual nature and part-time work or time-limited employment. The EC-law goes further and also prohibits discrimination on the ground of age. According to an EC-directive the member states must incorporate a national provision against age discrimination by the 2nd of December 2006 and the Swedish legislator is now in the progress to implement this into Swedish law.Even though national legislation does not contain any provision on the area, the EC-law directive has a certain influence at national law. Measures that are in breach of the purpose of the directive can for example not be taken. When the time for implementation has expired, the directive has direct effect and can be referred to within the member states.

The purpose with this paper is to examine if tertiary education and democracy have an impact on economic growth. In order to decide how democratic the examined countries are the democracy index constructed by The Economist is used. Besides the two central theories the purpose is also to explain why these variables could affect growth and to examine direct and indirect effects. Indirect effects mean that one variable affects another variable which thereafter has an impact on economic growth.34 OECD countries are compared in order to investigate whether education and democracy are strongly correlated with BNP per capita. Therefore a statistical design is used as method.The empirical results suggest that there is significant correlation between democracy and economic growth.