Prior studies have shown that earnings management can be used either to inform or to mislead investors about the future performance of a company. However, few studies have examined the impact of earnings management on forecasting return on equity (ROE). The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the ability to forecast next year's ROE is improved when taking earnings management, measured as discretionary accruals, into account. This is examined by comparing a forecast model that takes the magnitude of discretionary accruals into consideration with a model that does not. The study is based on companies that were listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during 2002-2012.

The subject of the essay is about a society called Klippan and the existing conflicts there between an active racist group and some youths with foreign heritage. The essay also concerns issues like racism, its effects and how it is expressed at different levels in a society. Futhermore we discuss how a community can prevent 'subtle' racism and open declared racism and how to work in a racist manner. We also talk about which role the immigrant youths play in the conflicts and how their behaviour can be understood. Another perspective that is discussed is which aspects can affect individuals to join an active racist group and which factors can make them leave such a group.

This thesis primarily includes a study on whether companies can develop a mathematical activity that supports students' motivation in mathematics. The work was done together with Midroc Electro, a company that pays attention to the difficulty of recruiting and therefore was interested in investigating how the business world would be able to contribute.The thesis can be divided into three stages. The first part comprised by a exploration into research on student motivation regarding mathematics as well as numerous interviews with engineers to see how the research findings did fit with Midroc Electros reality. In these studies it became clear that the student who aims for a profession whose education or work requires math belongs to the group of students who primarily manage their studies in mathematics, that is, those that have the greatest motivation to work hard and complete their studies.Research information and interviews were compared and resulted in the thesis second part, Midroc Challenge. An activity where students primarily came to learn about the engineering profession and secondly how mathematics can be used in the engineering profession.

This study examines how management consulting firms work with business- and functional strategy and how these strategies are interrelated. More specifically we focus on business strategy (business unit level) and knowledge strategy (functional level) and whether these are aligned or not, i.e. whether strategic congruence exists.A number of recent studies have examined the importance of business strategy and knowledge strategy in management consulting firms separately, but few have pointed out the importance of the alignment between them. With this study we contribute to the strategic field of research with a model that describes how management consulting firms should work with their knowledge strategy given their business strategy. The model is developed through a synthesis between theories in the field of strategic congruence, business- and functional strategies and thereafter tested by an empirical case study of six management consulting firms.

Syftet med denna studie var att genom kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer ta reda på hur flickor med utländsk bakgrund kan uppleva ett specifikt fotbollsprojekt som syftar till att öka deltagandet bland flickor med invandrarbakgrund. Syftet var även att undersöka vilken betydelse projektet kan ha för dem. Sex flickor med utländsk bakgrund som deltar i det specifika fotbollsprojektet ingick i studien. Av resultatet framkom att flickorna upplever att projektet har haft en stor betydelse för deras självuppfattning. Projektet har gett dem nya möjligheter att lära sig spela fotboll, träffa nya kompisar samt att vara mer fysiskt aktiva.

Effects of Menstrual Cycle and Oral Contraceptives on Sport Performance During the menstrual cycle, there is a variation of the female steriod hormones estrogen and progestogen. These hormones has mainly reproduktive functions, but do also affect other physiological systems, which may have an influence on athletic performance. The use of oral contraceptives among female athletes matches the use among the general population. There is a concern among female athletes and there coaches weather oral contraceptives can affect the performance. The purpose of this litterature review is to determine the effect of the menstrual cycle and the use of oral contraceptives on athletic performance.

It is statutory that teachers shall document their student's development of knowledge in different subjects. The teachers employed by Sundbybergs municipality have been commissioned to do the documentation in the web-based electronic system Projekt- och Omdömesdatabasen, P.O.D.B. The purpose of this study was to investigate witch effect the IT-solution P.O.D.B has brought for the teachers in their task of student documentation. By conducting interviews and questionnaire studies I have been looking for answers to if the target achievements have increased by using the IT-solution, and if the teachers are aware of what they may or may not write about their students in the system. The conclusions I have been able to draw through my studies are that the teachers have accepted the commission to use P.O.D.B.

According to earlier studies, men dominates the sports pages in Swedish newspapers. The gender balance is far from equal and the purpose of this thesis is therefore to look into how Swedish local and regional newspapers covered gender in their sports pages during the year of 2013. The study also examines the news values of men?s and women?s sports, whether there are any differences compared to previous studies and whether there are any differences across the country. The study uses a quantitative content analysis and the result is based on editorial material from six randomly selected newspapers in 18 randomly selected days.

France is committed to its ambition to lift the European Union's arms embargo imposed on China after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. France is of today the only member state that is acting to lift the arms embargo, evoking questions of motives behind its behavior. The underlying assumption in this essay is that France's actions reflect a need to find new ways of adapting itself and surviving faced with the threats of its decreased international influence. By using three different perspectives ? realism, liberalism and constructivism ? this essay examines three possible models of analysis to explain France's behavior.An analysis of the discourse covering this essay´s topic between 1989-2007 provided the basis of the paper.

The tomato is an important crop worldwide, and in recent years it has received great attention due to its rich content of carotenoids, which in studies indicate to have health benefiting properties. Many studies have been done in this area of research and in how to optimize the carotenoid content in tomatoes and tomato products. The objectives of this essay were to summarize present data in this field. The results were as follows:There are nine different carotenoids identified in tomatoes. Lycopene and ?-carotene are the ones that have been given the greatest attention.

Daily citizens are informed by the media about the environment and the climate changes. The schools purpose is to educate students according to events that are of current interest and take place in present time. According to Swedish curriculum, Lpf94, all Swedish education should include and discuss the problems surrounding durable development. The purpose of the study is to se how the textbooks in History, Social studies and Geography and their contents meet the demands of the curriculum. The study shows that only the textbooks in geography meets the demands that the curriculums have on durable development.

After the tsunami disaster in December 2004 many arguments were heared that one oft the major reasons behind the poor Swedish effort connected to the evacuation and health care of the Swedish citizens in Thailand right after the incident is the Swedish model with independent government authorities. By comparing the constitution, the political decision making tradition by the ministers and the handling of the catastrophe in the tree Scandinavian countries Denmark, Norway and Finland, plus analysing the behaviour of the Swedish foreign and prime minister from a rational choose inspired individual decision making theory the research shows that there is no proof that a constitutional change in Sweden into the traditional model with government authorities controlled by the ministers alone would led to a more effective crisis handling by the government due to crises concerning Swedish citizens out states. Although the research shows that the constitution and the tradition of decision making in the government provides the basic condition of the ministers individual rational decision making.

Uppsatsen syftar till att analysera politiska aktörers agerande för att framställa sin hållning inför folkomröstningen om kärnraften 1980 som trovärdig och rationell. Studien undersöker historiska källor i form av informationstätt opinionsmaterial samt statliga utredningar och propositioner med anknytning till folkomröstningen. Undersökningen är baserad på den teoribildning inom teknik- och vetenskapssociologi som kallas science and technology studies ? STS. Det analytiska verktyg som källmaterialet analyseras utifrån är begreppet energisäkerhet.

Ethiopia is the country with most livestock per capita on the continent of Africa. There are 34.5 million cattle that are used for drought, meat- and milkproduction and 85% of the population rely on agriculture for their survival in some way. Milk is produced in four main systems, through pastoralism in the lowlands, in mixed crop-livestock systems in the highlands, in and near big cities with only one or two cows, and in intensive farming systems. There are 17 cattle breeds in Ethiopia and some of them are more suitable for milk production than others. Several environmental and economic problems arise from livestock holding in the country, for example overgrazing, low production due to feed shortage, low quality of the avaible feed and non-existing breeding programs.

Inbreeding has become a problem in some horse breeds. Studies show that it may lead to inbreeding depression which affects e.g. reproduction traits. In the wild there are mechanisms that make horses avoid mating with close relatives. When selection is done by humans this mechanism is removed and intensive breeding for a few traits, for example good racing results, can become a problem.