Many companies have historically forced their interests through without any thoughts about the future needs of the humans and the society. In the last few years voices have been raised for a change, companies need to take their responsibility regarding sustainable development.The purpose of the report is to describe and explain possible relations between sustainabil-ity performance of companies and profitability, valuation, industry and size respectively.To be able to judge the sustainability performance of the companies Folksam (2006a) have been used. This is a solid investigation of the companies listed on the A- and O-lists of the Stockholm Stock Exchange by the end of 2005. The sustainability marks have been com-pared with the chosen key values for each hypothesis respectively. With this quantitative data as foundation, a quantitative approach and a deductive method have been used.In the first area of the investigation, profitability, the authors found correlation for the main hypothesis between sustainability performance and ?Return on Total Assets? through a statistical test.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, analyse and interpret the educational ideals of the ABF (Workers Educational Association) as they are understood by five members within ABF. The paper also examines how the educational ideals are represented in the national guidelines and statues of the ABF. The basic theoretical perspectives are intercultural theory and theories about Bildung and adult liberal education in a multi-cultural pedagogical environment presented by Bernt Gustavsson and Hans Lorentz respectively.The empirical study consists of five semi-structured interviews and a text study of the official documents of the ABF. The data is interpreted with hermeneutic and semiotic tools. Organisational theory focusing on organizational culture has also contributed to the study.The result of the study, when analysed in accordance to the methods, shows mainly four things.

Government regulations and customs duties restrict the import of trucks to some of the markets to which Scania tries to sell their trucks. The distribution problem due to these regulations is solved by the foreign assembly department, KD, at Scania. This means that competence is needed and costs are added not related to Scania's core operations.The aim of this master thesis has been to analyse and to evaluate alternative ways of managing the packing operations considering cost, quality and work organisation. To study and examine the work methods and operations of today and also to present methods measuring the operations effectiveness and productivity.We have used the system approach to maintain totality and to understand the component's relation to this totality. Field studies combined with studies of relevant literature and studies of other companies operations have given us the knowledge and the understanding of the packing operations needed.

This essay describes the Swedish furniture business and its strong competition between domestic and foreign producers. As the demand on higher development speed grows stronger, alongside a fierce competition between the companies, long lasting and unique qualities such as customer relations and strong brand names become crucial. Nowadays many furniture producers chose to sell their products through retailers and they therefore miss out on invaluable direct contact with their customers. Consequently, this means that they lack the perquisite to build relations or more importantly, to communicate their brand.To illustrate the problem a case study and a survey have been carried out. The study compares the strategic marketing works between producers who have own concept stores and those who uses retailers.

Anders Rådén: Liszt & Alkan: the virtuoso piano study ? practice study or monstrous mutation? Uppsala: Musikvetenskap, 1998. C-uppsats (60 p).The purpose of this essay is to analyse a selection of studies by Franz Liszt (1811-1886) and Charles- Valentin Alkan (1813-1888). Can they be definedas practice studies, or are they reshaped in such a manner, as to establish a larger form reminiscent of the concert study? First of all, typical study characteristics of this time period are determined, then such characteristics are looked for in three of either Liszt's and Alkan's studies (from Douze grandes études S137 and Douze études dans les tons mineurs Op.

Shelters and Nuclear weaponsA discourse analysis of the Swedish defense and civil defense debate during the Cold warSweden during the Cold War set into motion one of the world?slargest civil defense policies at the time, second only to neutral Switzerland. The governments expenditure was far greater per capita than both that of USA and Soviet Union and included massive evacuation plans for Stockholm and other large cities in Sweden, with the hopeful expectation to bring down the amount of people in each of them to 15000 in case of a foreign hostile nuclear attack. The policies included construction of shelters with room for 2,5 million of about 7 million citizens in total at the time along with gasmasks for the whole population. Not only this, Sweden was considered one of the biggest military powers of that time in relation to its size and population.

This thesis examines Swedish composers' modes of work and production within the Swedish film industry. It starts off with a historical overview treating live music in early silent film, the conversion to sound and the Swedish production climate until present time. The analysis consists of contemporary empirical studies; interviews with people writing music for film, TV and commercials. The musician's perspective is in focus but directors and other film workers are heard as well. The situation for female composers in a male-dominated industry is also discussed.

In this two years masters thesis in Library and Information Studies, the Russian Library-Bibliographical Classification (LBC/BBK) and the Chinese Library Classification (CLC) are analyzed with regard to their historical and ideological backgrounds and their respective evolutions. The structure of these classifications is compared with the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), as well as three chosen subjects (History, Politics and Religion). A qualitative comparative textual method is used.The study shows that these classification schemes, created at different times, different parts of the world, and different political systems, have different biases but give priority to the European before other foreign views. Otherwise, they often use a proximity principle. The CLC and the LBC were originally based on Marxist materialist principles but built in totally different ways.

AbstractA European identityA study of Manuel Castells criteria?s to create a European identityC-Essay in Political Science, by Helena Saagpakk, August 2007Supervisor: Björn ÅkerbergPhilosophers and visionaries dreamt early on the idea about a united Europe. This dream was destroyed by the two world wars during the first half of the 20th century. The first community was established in 1950 after the Second World War. This was the beginning of a peaceful cooperation between the member states, and the community later developed into the European Union.

AbstractThe debate on grammar has been on the agenda for thousands of years. Several different arguments and theories have been used in order to explain the importance of grammar in school. Some newer arguments have been added, while others have stayed, either in their original version, or in a modernised one.This essay aims to clarify the role grammar play in school. In order to do that we have looked into its history, the curriculum, modern research and interviews made with active teachers.The results of the literary studies, the studies of the curriculum and the field studies show that the very presence of grammar in school is disputed. The curriculum of today speaks of an orientation in language, with grammar as a part of it, based on the students? own language.

Since the middle of the 1980´s the Swedish bank market has experienced a change concerning structure and pressure of competition. Before the year 1985, the market was characterized as a market with few operators but have changed to a market with many operators and seen as one of the most intense in Europe where the four major banks; Nordea, Handelsbanken, SEB and Föreningssparbanken together have a strong position. Their market share has recently decreased, mostly for the benefit of foreign banks and niche banks. The Swedish market has experienced difficulties in generating profits which mostly depends on new establishments that have increased the pressure on competition, a low growth as well as weakened customer relations. The development has resulted in a growing importance of market segmentation, mainly by the fact that costumers have become more disloyal as a result of the increased competition.Students are a market segment of interest for the financial market, mainly because of the expectations of their positive financial situation in the future.

AbstractThis paper is a comparative study of the final reports of the Norwegian and Danish power studies performed in 2003. While the Danish study found that democracy is thriving, the conclusion of the Norwegian power study was that democracy is in a crisis. The purpose of this paper is to find explanations to why the studies in two Nordic countries arrived at such different results.Methodologically, the paper consists of an ideological text analysis and critical analyses of the discourse. In order to study how the results of the power studies can differ so considerably, the following aspects have been surveyed; 1) external contexts (government inquiries); 2) work process (the researchers? background, role and co-operation); 3) the problem areas and themes studied; and 4) power perspectives.

During 2008 we experienced an expansion of large scale investments in foreign farmland. This increasing trend has become a political hot-spot, but there is not much research available within the field. Due to a lack of research it remains a vital task to outline the potential effects of this trend. Drawing on existing ideas from some of the main actors within the field, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The World Bank, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the latest G8 summit on agriculture, four main purposes are set out for this paper. First, to outline some of the underlying mechanisms behind the trend is considered crucial for the understanding of the nature of these investments.

Native spider silk is an attractive lightweight natural polymeric material with a unique combination of strength, extendibility and flexibility. Synthetic, recombinant spider silk is an attractive biomaterial with several possible fields of application. When a foreign material is introduced to blood, this can for example cause unwanted coagulation and complement activation. The aim of this study was to investigate if coatings of heparin or albumin could improve the blood compatibility of films of recombinant spider silk and to develop an initial method to do so. Hypothetically, objects like pacemakers, stents and dental implants could be covered with spider silk films of high blood compatibility to reduce potentially harmful foreign body reactions caused by the immune defense. Increased blood compatibility would likely lead to improvements for both the individual patients and the society thanks to reduced load on healthcare institutions. Our objective was to assess the blood compatibility of both functionalized and non-functionalized recombinant spider silk by evaluating coagulation and activation of the complement system of the immune defense. Coagulation was evaluated visually on glass slides and complement activation was analyzed by measuring the concentration of the complement system mediator C3a in blood samples that had been exposed to the different materials. This study introduces a non-toxic and easy performed method of improving the blood compatibility of recombinant spider silk films by adding a heparin coating. Heparin coated surfaces had statistically significantly higher blood compatibility than uncoated surfaces. The effects of albumin coating of films were less clear compared to the results of heparin coated films. Complement activation could not be evaluated because of high activation in all samples prior contact with the materials that were included in the study..

The study will examine how teachers relate to religious studies for middle school students. Religious studies are the oldest but also the most contested subject undergoing the most changes over time. The subject is far from being obvious. Politicians and people within the school community disagree about the subject?s content and its name, some within the school system but also politicians like to call it topic of life studies or belief studies, while others want to keep the name religion studies.