Common wisdom dictates that because payment of dividends decreases funds available for investment, a high payout ratio is to be associated with low earnings growth. This notion has been challenged in recent years by empirical research that has found a positive relationship between payout ratio and future earnings growth, both on the aggregated market level and the company level in different countries. This study investigated the aforementioned relationship on the Swedish market by statistically analyzing future earnings growth as a Function of payout ratio on a large sample of publicly listed companies over the period 1980 to 2011. The results are in line with those found in previous research and indicate that companies with high dividend payout ratio tend to experience strong future earnings growth. The results are robust to the presence of mean reversion, the use of an alternative accounting measure of earnings, non-symmetrical earnings growth cycles and alternative practices for dealing with outliers..

Undersökningen syftar till att belysa hur en individ i en rehabiliteringsprocess kan gynnas av karriärvägledning. Forskningsfrågorna som ställts har gällt vilket inslag av karriärvägledning som ingår i den aktuella stressrehabiliteringen, vilka behov som av karriärvägledning som finns samt vilken funktion karriärvägledning kan fylla inom en arbetslivsinriktad stressrehabiliteringsverksamhet. För undersökningen valdes en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med forskningsfrågorna som grund. Resultatet av de öppna intervjufrågorna visade att det inte gavs karriärvägledning av någon anställd person inom stressrehabiliteringen, men att det var något som önskades. Inslag av karrärvägledning gavs begränsat av Arbetsförmedlingen och resultaten visade att det fanns behov av karriärvägledning samt att vägledning kan fylla en funktion inom arbetslivsinriktad stressrehabilitering.

Construction of an autonomous wind station was a project with the goal of creating a product that could collect wind data from a sensor and then transfer this data to a server wirelessly over the GSM network. The device would be powered by batteries and solar cells and Function fully without requiring external power supply. This required that a small computer was constructed and programmed to store and send data at predetermined cycle times and programming of a server that received the sent data. The project also required optimization of power consumption and dimensioning of solar cells and batteries based on this. The construction of this station demanded research both for the selection of hardware and programming software. The computer was based on a microcontroller and a GSM module that sent the data over the 2G network.

Today, many people have the need of contemplation due to higher stress levels in every day life compared to before. By examining the conditions of a secularized place of contemplation in greenbelts close to residential areas, I hope to contribute to a more balanced picture of how we utilize our greenbelts in the future. This kind of place is not a common phenomenon in our everyday outdoor environment.I have taken my starting-point in the traditional memorial and by that means been able to study the design of an existing delicate environment intended for mourning and contemplation. In this paper I review foremost the secularized place of contemplation in greenbelts close to residential areas from two central questions. First I examine its possibility to Function as a place for mourning and contemplation.

In the preschool curriculum there is not much described when it comes to the subject of music. What is written about the aesthetic subjects is related to the overall learning moments, rather than separated into objectives for each subject. The learning includes, among other things, that the children will be offered a variety of cultural experiences. However, there is no explanation to what should be included in the use of music. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the Function of preschool song circles, based on three preschool teachers' stories.

This thesis examines how techniques from place marketing, developed to market places, can be used in the process of designing a visual identity for an institution. The thesis is a case study of the development of a new visual identity for the public art institution Malmö konsthall. The essay presents Malmö Konsthall, defines the term visual identity and describes the main principles in place branding. I then define target audiences and key values, discuss the application of place marketing principle and go through the design process of the new visual identity. The process showed that theories about flagship buildings, signature design and signature districts have the biggest influence on the design.

The goal with this examination thesis is to investigate the difference in carbon dioxide emissions between a building with a wooden versus concrete carcassing from a life cycle perspective. The huge amounts of carbon dioxide released into air from human activities must be reduced to prevent serious consequences. A way to limit this issue is through performing a comparative study where the result shows which of two products with the same Function has the lowest emission of carbon dioxide, whereof the product with the lowest carbon dioxide pollution can be chosen.To be able to perform a study like this an object has been chosen and studies about life cycle analyses have been done. The rental square meter, the thermal conductivity value, the energy requirements and the placement of the building has been set equal in both framework types. There were solely dissimilarities of the two buildings taken into account when this comparison study was performed.The result of the study is that a building constructed with a wooden carcassing has the lowest amount of carbon dioxide emissions.

In today?s industry it is starting to get more and more interesting with wireless systems and solutions for applications. To be able to reduce the amount of cables drawn to various machines which takes both space and an extra fee for every cable drawn. Some systems might require the user to use a handheld device that is directly connected by a cable which in some machines might be inelegant for the user.The goal with this bachelor thesis is to develop wireless monitoring of the machine operators position that is working with heavy industrial machinery. The thesis started out with researching different techniques for positioning a transmitter indoors, this was done in order to get a better understanding on how to go about.

Customer service has traditionally consisted of telephone, mail, and later on chat.But the entry of social media has changed the way companies exercise customerservice. Companies should ask themselves whether the same type of traditionalcommunication may or may not Function in a new channel and thus whether itcan be applied to social media.The purpose of this study is to describe the companies? use of customer servicein social media and how the communication differentiates from thecommunication in traditional customer service, and also to define the effect onthe customers? relationship to the company. To reach our conclusions we havecombined theoretical references with qualitative interviews.By our analysis, we found that the communication in social media expandsthe possibilities. By entering an unfamiliar channel, customer service has hadto adapt themselves and their language.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate what attributes were used in story-time activities, why attributes were used in story-time activities and what Functions they have. The study is based on qualitative methods in the form of a literature studies, observations and interviews. The interviews were undertaken with two storytellers from the same public library. The story-time activities were adapted for children from three to six years of age. The study suggested that there was a connection between story-time activities and a social and cultural perspective.

AbstractThe aim of this review was to describe how quality of life is experienced among patients with diabetes type 2. Literature search was made in Medline and the keywords used were ?diabetes mellitus type 2? and ?quality of life?. Twenty studies were examined and categorized into four sections: Quality of life during complications due to diabetes type 2, quality of life during various treatments, quality of life during depression and quality of life and aspects in relation to the individual as well as social aspects. The designs of the studies were of a varying kind: randomized controlled studies, comparative studies, correlative studies and descriptive studies.

The object of this master thesis was to examine the significance of fairy tales for children and the extent which children today are able to share fairy tales through the activity of the libraries. The main question was: how current were fairy tales at the investigated libraries activity for children and how current were fairy tales in todays book publication? The qualitative methods used were in the form of interviews, statistics and source studies. The theoretical literature in this thesis described the folkloristic context of the fairy tales. There was also a psychological and a pedagogical view of the possibility of the fairy tales.

This report deal with grades and evaluation in intermediary school, which grading systemshas been and is used in intermediary school and their benefits and disadvantages. The purposewith this report is to find out how the different grading systems has Functioned since thebeginning of the Swedish intermediary school to present day and speculate what the futurewill show considering the changes the Swedish school in general is facing. My main result isthat the literature and the teachers, both retired and active, share the same view regarding thepros and cons with grading. When it comes to the matter of in which class should initiate, allthe approached teachers has different opinions. The procedure which I used to get my resultsincludes a literature analysis about grading and evaluation, covering both printed andelectronic sources, where I have compared the views of the different scholars.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how the crisis communication was perceived between SAS, massmedia and citizens during the volcano crisis in 2010. The questions posed are: - How did the communication between SAS, media and citizens Function during the crisis? - How did senders, intermediaries and beneficiaries experience the information and communication during the crisis? - How important was the internet communication for SAS, media and citizens during the crisis?The collected material consists of interviews and desktop research of material from Internet.The study shows that the communication between SAS, the media and citizens worked well on the social medias but was weaker in all other mediachannels. SAS was also weak in following up information received by media and travelers, and they therefore they had a different picture of the situation during the crisis. SAS thought that the communication worked fine between the parties involved.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate whether publiclibraries language cafés can support or enable the empowerment of the participants. Empowerment means that the individuals ability to take control of their own lives is strengthened and that the individual becomes more independent. Empowerment also means that the individual takes part in a community. An important part of this is the language. I have developed two research questions: What forms of empowerment can be seen in the respondents' statements? What role do language cafés play for people from other countries, in terms of empowerment? The thesis empirical material consists of interviews whit five people involved in different languages cafes in public libraries in the city of Malmö.