This thesis studies whether private equity owned firms within the Swedish welfare sector distinguish themselves in terms of tax planning and short-termism from a control group consisting of other privately owned welfare firms. For the first time, the comparison is made on the entire welfare sector, between 14 matched pairs within education, health care and elderly care. We use financial metrics associated with tax planning and short-termism in sign tests to examine whether the private equity owned firms differ from our control group. The financial metrics tested are actual and paid tax rates, level of interest, book-tax gap, investments, personnel expenses per employee, and cash earnings. We find that the private equity owned firms in terms of tax planning only differ in the level of interest, while no notable differences are found in terms of short-termism..

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how health care providers, working at care facilities providing maintenance treatment programs for opiate dependence, perceive and manage the legal framework governing the treatment. The study is limited to a few particular rules within this framework which over the recent decade have been the subject matter of debate regarding i.a. their alleged lack of relation to scientific research and their frequently disastrous implications for program participants. The empirical material consists of interviews with five respondents working at four different care facilities and has been analyzed by using Lipskys theory on street-level bureaucrats as policymaking agents. The results of the study show that the rules are looked upon and dealt with in a liberal fashion and that the primary loyalty of the maintenance treatment staff is clearly directed towards promoting the well-being of their patients and helping them reach their treatment goals rather than strictly following the rules..

This master thesis encompasses an inventory and risk classification of four disused landfills within the municipality of Uppsala, Sweden. The model of the classification; ?Method of Surveying Contaminated Sites? is developed by the Environmental Protection Agency and can be used as a framework to investigate and describe the environmental damage and the level of risk for each object. The risk classification model has a rating from 1 to 4, where 1 represents a very high risk while 4 is a small risk. Risk class depends largely on the type of land use that exists on the object, and hence, various benchmarks must be taken into account.

The majority of managers of public libraries in Sweden also work as librarians on an operative level within the organisation. This thesis discusses how the manager role is affected by his/her specific assignments and multiple tasks. Seven public library managers, who work in districts with around 10 000 25 000 inhabitants, have been interviewed. They reflect upon their experience of leadership and different assignments. The main focus lies on: - leadership - communication - decision making - organisational development The interviews show some positive effects, the manager is present most of the time, has a great knowledge about everyday work and daily routines, and is also able to represent the library successfully in the local community.

The engine of JAS 39 Gripen, RM12, has recently been equipped with a new flameholder and a new engine inlet. This change has caused an increased noise level from the engine when the afterburner is in use. The noise level reaches its peak when the afterburner is partially used. The problem is thought to be unstable combustion in the regions around the flameholder. A solution to the problem has been proposed by Volvo Aero.

Conversing about books at A-level - a qualitative study on six teachers experience from conversing about books.

The association between social parameters (i.e. socio-economy and level of education) and voting behaviour has been reviewed and analysed based on data from municipal council elections in Stockholm and Gothenburg in 2002. Some social scientists argue that the class voting is in decline and that new social cleavages have emerged. However, by using regression analysis techniques, this study implies a strong dependence of voting behaviour on social parameters, such as socio-economic status (SES) and level of education. Socio-economy appears to be a dominant predictor in the analysis.

AbstractThis report is made in cooperation with the municipality of Vasteras and technical committeestaff. The report addresses several topics that affect fuel stations in Vasteras. The reportcontains two parts, first is a inventory that review all stations in the area to be addressed. Theinventory is made with consideration to various things that geographic situation, whatcompanies are represented and what level of service stations have. And the second part of thereport, is done with the analysis of how it looks in daily situations review.

The essay explores nationalism in the curriculum of the swedish school from 1878 to 1994. The text has been undertaken an analysis in three levels of discourse based on Norman Faircloughs critical language analysis. The first level is the text, the second is types of discourses and the third is order of discourse.The nationalism in the curriculum has been related to three nationalistic types of discourses, derived from earlier studies on Swedish nationalism. They are conservative nationalism, ?folkhemsnationalism? and contemporary nationalism.

This study aims to find coping resources in two different paradigms of pastoral care using coping theory from the psychology of religion. The intention is to find coping resources that are functional coping strategies to help priests and chaplains in their work with pastoral care. The research questions are: What coping resources can be found in the pastoral clinical paradigm and the contextual paradigm? What are the differences and similarities? The method used is template analysis style where the theories form a framework for the material used to analyse in this study. The theories used for this study are religious coping theory and pastoral care theory.

One must consider cost effectiveness when deciding how resources within the health sector should be distributed. Quality adjusted life years (QALYs) are used to measure the value of different medical treatments. QALY is based on utility maximization theory, which suggests that a QALY is always a QALY regardless of who receives it. Therefore, a produced QALY is worth the same regardless of the age or the initial health of the patient. Previous research has shown that these assumptions do not seem to fit the real preferences of individuals.

To increase the understanding of how individuals total life situation affects their stress level and health has lately more frequently been discussed in different contexts. Furthermore, it is important to have knowledge of power structures that exist under given circumstances in a society to get an increased understanding of how to structure the health promoting work to get the highest possible benefits. People?s work life is essential to their health, since we spend a lot of time at work. The aim of this study was to find out which factors that relate to nursing staff?s health and stress level from a general perspective.

Jumper´s knee is a common overuse injury due to repetitive microtrauma to the patellar tendon. It is especially common among athletes who are involved in sporting activities that involve jumping or fast running. The term jumper´s knee was adopted after Blazina published his original paper in 1973. Its pathology can be considered as a partial or total rupture of the patellar tendon in one of its three insertions. The aim of this literature study was to review the methods used to treat this condition and the results obtained focusing on pain relief and returning to previous sport or level of activity.

AbstractTitle: Is it easy to make the right decision? An essay about how the profiled senior level schools communicate with their future pupils and their parents. (Lätt att göra rätt val? En uppsats om den profilerade högstadieskolans kommunikation med blivande elever och deras föräldrar.)Author: Erika CassmanAim: My hypothesis is that parental influence is higher when the students are going to a detached school than when the students are going to a school with a profiled program because in the profiled program they are going to study a course that they love and is chosen by themselves. The aim of this essay is therefore to find out if this thesis is right or wrong.

Soft rubber flooring have gained in popularity over the last years. Rubber flooring al-lows cow to move more freely without slipping and improves claw and leg health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of a stepwise introduktion of soft flooring on cow`s placement in cow houses with robotic milking. A case study was carried out in a herd in northern Sweden with 41 cows. Observations were made every 15 minutes between 09.00 and 16.00 concering cow placement in cu-bicles, in cubicle alley, in feeding alley and in feeding alley with the head through feed-ing gate. One observation period was carried out per flooring alternativ: 1) all concrete slatted floor, 2) rubber slatted floor in feeding alley and concrete slatted floor in cubicle alley and 3) rubber slatted floors in feeding alley and solid rubber floors in cubicle alley. The study showed that 6 %-units fewer cows lay in the cubicles when the feeding alley surface was slatted rubber.