This paper describes a factor analysis applied at the data of the European Union structural indicators. These are the official indicators for wealth and economic development in the European Union with main use to evaluate the outcomes of the year 2000 Lisbon goals for making the European Union the world?s strongest economy by 2010. The purpose of the data is to serve for comparing and ?learning by doing?-policies, but have, due to size and format, so far been hard to use for a good compare between member countries.

This report presents a thesis project conducted by two students at Mälardalens högskola. The project covers 15 points in industrial design and was conducted during April to June 2014. The principal of the thesis works at Plastic Produkter. The assignment was to develop equipment for an effective way to dose, mix silicon, fill a special designed plastic bag and then seal it. The bag is then formed into a breast model.When a customer for various reasons decides to do a breast augmentation or a breast reconstruction, there may be doubt or uncertainty about the result.

This thesis treats the normative power of the European Union and its affect on Macedonia. The main purpose has been to look closer with the use of the application of Ian Manners theory of normative power on the Macedonian case. The focus will be to answer the following questions: Does the European Union act as a normative power in relation to Macedonia, if so, how are these values diffused? Has there been any effect of the spreading of these values? Based on six interviews and the available material of European Union strategies for the Macedonian membership I have attempted to understand to what extent the European Union?s normative power has had an influence in Macedonia. The result of my analysis is confirmation of the European Union as a normative power in Macedonia and the understanding of the methods of application..

A study of communication content, frequency and problems was performed at the Swedish Air Force Air Combat Simulation Centre, FLSC. The purpose was to investigate the connection between team communication and performance variables, to study communication problems during air combat and to employ and develop the PILOT method of communication problem analysis. Ten fighter pilots and four fighter controllers engaged in simulated air combat beyond visual range in teams on two sides, Blue and Red, with four pilots and one fighter controller each. Eight such training runs lasting 15 to 25 minutes were analyzed with regard to the Blue team?s communication during launch situations, i.e.

In this paper discourse analysis on the Ethiopian National Action Program (NAP) to combat desertification is made. The aim is to describe how the overall image/picture of desertification, its causes, and effects and of possible solutions are presented in the NAP. The result of this analysis shows that the main cause of desertification is human activities mainly due to the poorly developed socio-economic situation in the dryland areas. It is indicated that an excessive dependency of the rural population on the natural resources, particularly land, is the major cause of land degradation and this deterioration of land is said to have been caused by the rapid population growth, overgrazing, forest clearing as well as past government and institutional failures. In addition it is indicated that the effect of desertification usually involves ecological changes that sap land of its ability to sustain agriculture and human habitation, therefore the most serious threat to human welfare.

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.

This article presents a survey of male dogs treated with the gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist deslorelin (Suprelorin®, Virbac) at three animal clinics in central Sweden. Filled-in questionnaires from 110 dogs were received. The paper also includes a review of existing litterature concerning reproduction in male dogs, focusing on endocrinology, the effects of gonadectomy and the GnRH agonist deslorelin. Continuous treatment with deslorelin produces infertility in male dogs. The pituitary is initially stimulated by deslorelin leading to a rise in luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) secretion. As a consequence the testosterone levels also increase temporarily.

Det har vuxit fram en ny identitet inom resekulturen, flashpackern, som har sitt ursprung i backpackerkulturen. Denna identitet skiljer sig dock från den traditionella backpackern på olika plan. Jag antog mig att följa flashpackern jorden runt vilket resulterade i en fältstudie.Syftet med denna undersökning är att diskutera identitetsförändringar inom resekultur, som sker när samhällets struktur förändras och en ny kontext uppstår.Uppsatsen inleds med en bakgrundsdel vars syfte är att ge en förståelse till terminologin. Här förklaras hur termen backpacker samt flashpacker och även eurocentrism och en nationell aspekt på backpacking. Den andra delen syftar till att ge en teoretisk förklaring till den förändrade samhällsstrukturen och en förändring i kontext som sker i Europa och Nordamerika.

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.

The use of computer and video games has increased immensely over the past few decades and today a majority of the Swedish population enjoys them on a daily basis. With such a large number of frequent users, the media reporting on the subject of games becomes interesting and important. How are games represented in the media, and has there been any change in the way they are portrayed as their popularity has grown? ­The aim of this study is to determine if and how the portrayal of computer and video games in Swedish newspapers has changed during the period 1995?2012. The study was conducted with the use of quantitative content analysis and the empirical data was collected from the two most widespread newspapers in Sweden ? DN and Aftonbladet.

Mothers and fathers in Sweden receive an earnings-related benefit of 80 percent of their income when they take parental leave. There exists a ceiling in the allowance though, meaning that some people with high earnings don?t receive fully 80 percent of their ordinary salary. The length of the parental leave varies between women and men and also among men and women. Various reasons are used to explain this; one of them is economical.

Tomo Hugglink (TOMO Skog) is an innovation for harvest and transport of biofuels. The system consists of a truck, a chipping unit and crane mounted on a link and a wood chip trailer. The system works in such a way that the chipping unit is disconnected and placed on the site and wood chips are loaded directly into the wood chip trailer.The aim of this study was:- To examine the performance of the TOMO Hugglink system under different conditions such as the size, placement and quality of the pile.- To calculate the cost per raw ton for two vehicle combinations at different transport distances and to examine the effect of a reduction in set-up time and an increase in load weight.- To identify possible improvements with the TOMO Hugglink system.A time study was conducted within the thesis work to make it possible to determine production and time consumption. In the subsequent economic analysis the cost per tone at different transport distances was calculated for two different lorry concepts. Furthermore the effect of a reduction in set-up time and an increase in load weight was calculated.Under current conditions the utilization of the chipper is low and only 29 % of the total system time is occupied by chipping.

Rapporten som följer är en analys av en metod som genererar regler från neurala nätverk. Metoden heter VI-Analysis (Validity Interval Analysis) och är framtagen av Sebastian B. Thrun [Thrun]. VI-Analysis arbetar på det sättet att det neurala nätverket ses som en svart låda där endast de inputvärden och outputvärden som finns i nätverket används som underlag när regler ska genereras. Dessa inputvärden och outputvärden kommer sedan att få tillåtna intervall av VI-Analysis.

During the past 20 years, the price of forest estates in Sweden has raised more than the price of timber. The purpose of this study is to investigate if it, despite this development, is possible to buy a forest estate based on economic grounds. Different forest parameters will also be studied to analyse their effect on the profitability. The study is done in cooperation with the company LRF Konsult. Purchase price of 34 forest estates near the coast of Norrbotten, Sweden, has been compared to yield valuation. For the valuation, guidelines from the Swedish author Lantmäteriet was used.

This thesis investigates the effect of profit growth and profitability on market capitalization amongst Nordic companies during the turbulent period 1997-2005. Our results suggest that profitability have a significant impact on market capitalization for six of the nine years studied, whereas profit growth does not seem to affect market capitalization. Consequently, our results imply that the effect of other factors on share price performance may be greater than previously suggested. These findings are only partly in line with theories on corporate valuation which suggest that market capitalizations are to a great extent driven by both profit growth and capital returns, regardless of whether the stock market is particularly unstable..