Background: Quality of life is a concept of individual meaning which is perceived differently depending on the person experiencing it. To have a chronic disease in the lung, such as asthma, has an effect on the quality of life. Asthma affects people of all ages. It is a disease that causes a constriction in the patients? airways which leads to a feeling of suffocation which in turn produces a feeling of anxiety.Aim: The purpose is to illuminate which factors affect the quality of life in adult patients with asthma.Method: This is a literary review based on ten articles, both quantitative and qualitative, from four different continents.

The purpose of the study was to analyze how media, in this case, the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter, produces the men and women in men's violence against women in close relationships in news articles and if there has been a change over time in this production. It is a qualitative study in which 40 news articles from DN were analyzed. The starting point in the tanks around the analysis is from a social constructive perspective. Critical discourse analysis is the method I chose to use in the processing of news stories. The result is divided into four different blocks where each block presents the results and the analysis for the following years: 1994, 1999, 2004 and 2009.

The goal in doing this study has been studying public interpretations of media content in the commercials that this study uses. The analysis was based on two TV commercials for feminine hygiene products. Initially, they seemed to differ from each other, but soon the question whether or not they in fact did convey the same underlying message was raised. The theoretical premises on which the study was founded on are the gender perspective in advertising and the social construction of gender. To reveal the hidden signs appearing in these commercials and to find out their meanings, we used the method of semiotic analysis.

The purpose of this thesis is to draw a picture of pedagogical work at the senior level with a critical perspective of information and media. As a method for gathering material for the analysis, a case study was made with qualitative interviews together with documents that describe the case. Relevant literature for the subject has been used as an introduction and as a theoretical basis. The literature concerns subjects such as a childrens relation to media, the schools intructions, the role of the school library and some theories regarding learning. The conclusion is that the respondents focus on conversations and reflection regarding the sources of information and its use, and that the childrens adaption of the material is an important factor in teaching.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how representations of identity construction are performed through the characters in the novel Snabba Cash by author Jens Lapidus. I examine what means the characters are using, and how the identity construction processes are related to the idea of modern society. For a theoretical background I use sociologist Anthony Giddens? theories regarding modernity and self-identity, to study general identity construction.

This paper examines the function of narrative discourse in television talk shows. Basing our analysis on five episodes of the Swedish talk show Skavlan, we illustrate how narratives are initiated and elaborated by the participants of the show. The analysis shows that the institutional roles are challanged and that the roles vary between the host ant the guests. The analysis also shows that when guests introduce and elaborate stories they use the same discursive actions and resources as the host. When participants enter an actvie role in their storytelling the hos takes a more restrained role in which he lets the the conversation evolve spontaneously.

AbstractTitle: The Construction of Science in Television Crime Shows ? a Critical Discourse Analysis of CSI and Bones (Om konstruktionen av vetenskap i kriminalserier på TV ? en kritisk diskursanalys av CSI och Bones).Number of pages: 45 (50 including enclosures)Author: Lovisa SandbergTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and Communications Studies DPeriod: Spring 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim was to explore the construction of science in the television crime shows CSI and Bones.Material/Method: The method used is critical discourse analysis based on the thoughts of Norman Fairclough. The analysis includes three episodes of CSI and three episodes of Bones,broadcast from between the 10th and 25th of April, in 2006 on Swedish television.Main results: The scientists in CSI and Bones are constructed as rational and calm; they are mainly concerned with finding the truth. On the surface, the truth is objective and reachable, although, in these TV-shows all observations are theory laden.Keywords: CSI, Bones, crime shows, television, science, discourse analysis..

The purpose of this study was to find out how special needs users ' autonomy and influence in their daily routines is described by their assistants. What interpretations of the concepts of self-determination and influence on special needs users' daily routines emerge from the assistants statements and what conditions can be seen? To reach a conclusion, focus group as a method was used. The focus group met twice to discuss this topic. The diamond method was used as stimulus material to support the discussion in the focus group.

The purpose of this thesis was to study descriptions of companies on their webpages on the Internet. This was performed from a socialconstructionist point of view with focus being on subject positionings and gender. A critical discourse analysis was carried out on two texts from the webpages of two organizations on the Internet. Using the three dimensional model for critical discourse analysis by Fairclough, the discourses and subject positionings that the texts included could be revealed. The purpose of this thesis was also to point out the importance of the use of language in recruiting personnel and to hopefully encourage organizations to put effort into text production to avoid discrimination.

Background: Older people are a major patient group seeking medical care in Sweden. Several of the elderly are living alone and the main reason for living alone is when the spouse passes away. Loneliness is a factor that can affect quality of life, health and wellbeing. Loneliness is an individual experience, loneliness can be self-chosen but involuntary loneliness can lead to lifelong suffering and feelings of loneliness. Aim: The aim of the study was to highlight the factors affecting loneliness among elderly people within municipal care living in Sweden.

This study tests two financial valuation models empirically by valuing three stocks from three industries, with the purpose of studying how well valuation models work empirically and to make a forecast. The models which will be tested are residual income valuation and discounted cash flow. Nine stocks will be picked strategically from the Swedish stock market and additional analysis will follow in the analysis chapter.Based on analysis and valuation, the commodities industry has decent valuation as the healthcare industry is undervalued thanks to the high valuation of AZN. The energy industry has low value due to the capital intensive nature of the industry. When it comes to the models and their practical implementation, DCF has been the most problematic to apply empirically whereas RIV was better but it still shows extreme values, which teaches the student the clear difference between theory and empiri..

This essay examines how age, power and agency is represented and reproduced in contemporary Swedish picture books.This is done through a combination of discourse analysis and literary analysis.It uses theoretical perspectives from sociology, and views childhood as a social construct. It sees discourse and language use as both representing and constructing social reality in the tradition of Norman Fairclough and critical discourse analysis. The main results is that the discourses of childhood in the material construct children as a separate group in society, and childhood as a special time in life. Children is portrayed as both social actors and in need of protection from adult themes and worries..

Purpose/Aim: The aim of this thesis was to study Sydsvenskans coverage of the police crisis in Skåne 2009.Material/Method: The study is based on 26 articles which has been analysed within the frames of Norman Faircloughs Critical Discourse Analysis..

Background: Balanced scorecard is a relatively new strategy in analysing activities in a company. To carry out a strategy in an organization a successful implementation is very important. Strategy implementations are unique for each organization and to succeed it has to be formulated and implemented with the individual companies particular conditions as starting- point. A problem is that the implementation sometimes is treated as a small detail in the planning process. This problem depends on how the strategic plans is carried out.

The purpose of this essay is to analyse and understand how branding can take place in a football organisation. Football clubs have for a long time been seen as non-profit organisations but since money have become a main factor also in football these days the organisations are more or less turning in to commercial businesses. Football organisations have for many years neglected the assets of actively contributing values to their brand. Despite that branding doesn't seem to be seen as important in football organisations as it is for real companies who spend a fortune of money on building strong brands, which makes us curious to find out how this approach can be developed also in football. We are also interested in what the characteristics are and which underlying factors that determines the choice of a football brand.