Where is technology heading? And how will our behaviors towards these new innovations look? This project questions the direction of ?beyond smart? products, through scenarios within our everyday life. The work is both critical and speculative. Speculative in the sense that it is speculating in how a future scenario with ?beyond smart? products would look like.

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..

This thesis aims to develop proposals and models for a modular electronics construction to a future D250S Dual battery charger. The aim also includes investigation of possibilities to use some of Texas Instruments C2000 microprocessors. The reason for this is that CTEK SWEDEN AB wants to renew the present D250S Dual battery charger and lower the manufacturing costs. The thesis work has involved gathering theoretical facts for the development of a design on the modular electronic construction, the choice on which microprocessor to use, the choice of electronic components and facts about peripheral equipment to the D250S Dual. With the theoretical there has been developed different solutions to the proposed hardware and software solutions with comparisons in aspects of positive and negative.

This paper is a qualitative study of the pedagogical conditions and the knowledge necessary for the creation and development of an education regarding leadership in the field of amateur theatre.The purpose of the study has been for participants to reflect and create knowledge about the creation and implementation of a course for leaders of amateur theatre.Questions raised in the study concern the students? previous experience of drama, theatre and leadership; their desire to become leaders of theatre; their own view of their need for knowledge for their future leadership; their understanding of the contents of the education and the theoretical perspectives upon which a course in theatre leadership can build. Finally, the participants? perceptions of difficulties and possibilities of working as theatre leaders were investigated.All 13 participants have answered a questionnaire regarding their previous experience of drama, theatre and leadership and also about why they want to become theatre leaders. The participants have also taken part in four focus conversations regarding what they think they learned, how they value the knowledge they gained and what knowledge they feel will be needed in a future leadership.The data has been analyzed hermeneutically to find patterns in the participants? perceptions of their learning.

Abstract This report is our bachelor thesis. Our work has taken place at a galvanising company in Sölvesborg. The company faced major changes, of which one was a computerisation process. The new system could involve changes in work practice and in specific tasks, affecting the workers. If the coming system was to support work, from the production personnel?s perspective, we felt a legitimate participation in the development and design of the future work practice, was a requirement that was not met. During our ethnographical studies we noted that conflicts arose between production and administrative -personnel.

The aim of this Master thesis is, from a sociocultural perspective, to investigate the views the teaching librarians at Södertörn University Library (SHB) have on learning, information literacy, and their own pedagogical role, and how their views affect user education and their ideas about the future of user education.The research questions used were: How do the teaching librarians view learning? How is this view reflected in their work with user education? How do the teaching librarians envisage user education in the future, and how do they work to reach that goal?Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teaching librarians at SHB. The interviews were then analysed using qualitative content analysis.The results of the study show that the teaching librarians at SHB share a sociocultural view on learning, and take a communicative oriented approach to user education. They believe that communication and interaction support learning, and in the classroom they stimulate discussions both between librarian and student, and between the students themselves. In the future, they hope for improved collaboration between librarians and academic staff, and that user education will become a natural element of the curriculum..

This investigation aimed to shed light on the terms of the dispensing and the retaining of municipal social benefits granted by Swedish social services, this in regard of a less visible societal subgroup; citizens who cannot attain or retain housing of their own.Through qualitative interviews with six municipal social workers in Skåne, the plight of these citizens is revealed from a policy-making perspective in respect of views on discretion and individual appreciation. How may the applicant impact the application process and how does social subletting operate as a service effort?Further analysis of the accounts of informants? views on change and the reasons for change, sketched an image of a society where public acceptance and tolerance are crucial factors for citizens hoping to achieve a homestead through means of municipal intervention.In conclusion, flexible attitudes towards job description are of major import to the possibility of offering client support in under-staffed municipal environs. Furthermore, reflexive social workers allying with the applicant throughout the process, from application to intervention are decisive for efficacious, long-term social work..

An interview study of horsemanship has been conducted in the community of Ängelholm. The study is part of a larger project, where a further four students who are writing their thesis? have conducted interviews in Lerum, Hässleholm, Nyköping and Enköping, a total of 52 horse holders in 5 different communities. The collective results are summarised in "Hur hålls hästarna i Sverige och vilka är motiven" by Catharina Svala. The purpose of this larger report has been to examine why Swedish horsemanship is the way it is today through communication with the various horse holders.

This paper investigates how students in the humanities in four universities in Sweden reflect on their education and the current view on the humanities as an education and a science. I want to investigate what impact the past few years public debate about the humanities have had on the students. What kind of beliefs and identities do the students of the humanities form and how do they discuss the universities, the choices they made in life and how do they feel about the future.This study is based on interviews with seventeen students in Sweden from four different universities. The research is also based upon a report that The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) published in 2011 and the debate following that report. I have also made participant observations on the four universities to make a broader description for the reader.

The aim for this study was to investigate if it is less stressful for cow and calves in loose housing systems when separation is made so they can see and touch each other (Physical Contact-PC) instead of just hearing each other (Hearing Contact-HC). The behavior of eight cow- calf pairs (n=4 pairs per treatment) on an ecological dairy farm with cubicle housing were studied for four hours directly after separation and four hours the day after separation. The first four cows that gave birth were used for treatment PC, and the following four cows that gave birth were used for treatment HC. The only selection criteria used was that both cow and calf were healthy. Separation took place 3-4 days after birth and the calves were put separately in two different pens while the mothers were let loose into the cubicle system.

People born 1940-1949 will be more demanding regarding help from the elder care than previous generations. The explanation often proposed is that people born in the 1940?s grew up after the Second World War when cultural changes took place in society. The aim of this qualitative study was to describe the social needs of people born in the 1940?s today, in order to make cautious assumptions about what type of social needs elder care is likely to face in the future, when the older people becomes in need of elder care.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to show models from the literature which can underlie appraisal and development in the real estate business of Gavlegårdarna.1. Gavlegårdarna should be able to use the study in their work with quality assurance off their services.2. Company?s in real estate business and other students should be able to use the study for an overview of quality models.Method: To collect data I chose to use a qualitative method based on the hermeneutic research method. The collected data was a result of literature and interviews.Result & Conclusion: From the literature there are two models that are suited for analyses of quality, that is the Housing quality model and the Gap model.

The primary focus of this Master thesis is to study how industrial house building can be implemented during production of rental flats under the terms of public procurement. In order to determine a suitable working process as well as presenting a possible architectonic result of the process, a case study is carried through.A housing projekt is designed on a site i Malmö, where the commisioner is MKB Fastighets AB and the contractor is NCC Komponent with the industrial building system NCC Komplett. The focus of the design is to accomplish high quality apartments to a resonable price, as well as solving the overall scheme for the site.The housing projekt, Kv. Flaggskepparen, built on the consept of a single house model, used to handle the entire site, shows that the building system is well suited to accomodate the commisioners demands.In order to reach the best possible architectonic result with the building system, cooperation initiatded in an early stage of the process is neccesary.A model is proposed to handle the situation under the terms of public procurement. The model suggest that the geometrical design is mainly carried out after inquiry and that architectonic qualities should mainly be defined in a non geometrial way for inquiry..

Debatten om matfett är ständigt aktuell och i stort sett dagligen så matas vi med olika aktörersåsikter om vilket fett som är att föredra. Ska vi äta omättat eller mättat fett? Vilket matfett ärdet mest hälsosamma? Fokus i denna studie har varit att synliggöra den professionellapedagogens förhållningssätt till matfett och vilka olika strategier som lärare i hem- ochkonsumentkunskap har använt sig av i sin undervisning relaterat till matfett. Studiens syftevar att synliggöra och analysera hem- och konsumentkunskapslärares skilda förhållningssättrelaterat till matfett i undervisningen med utgångspunkt i perspektiven hälsa, ekonomi ochmiljö. Studien bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer samt observationer med lärare i hem- ochkonsumentkunskap på högstadiet.

Floating housing is a concept gaining ground in Sweden. The dwellings are different in many ways from traditional homes, not only regarding flotation, but also several other technologies. The purpose of this thesis is to emphasize the qualities that exist in living on water. The ambition was to present a proposal for a floating residential area located in Jönköping, containing homes of varying sizes, and to present their technologies. In order to find inspiration and solutions studies have been made on existing floating homes in Stockholm and Kalmar, focusing on their technical and functional solutions.