The aim of this study is to illuminate and discuss a case of political steering, specifically Managment-By-Objectives (MBO) in Swedish municipalities, from a democratic perspective. The essay examines a discrepancy between MBO in the Swedish municipalities and democratic theory.To fulfil the aim of the study one leading politician and one leading civil servant from five municipalities have been interviewed on this matter. This material is discussed in the light of a democratic theory constructed specifically for this essay. The democratic theory consists of three main democratic values in the democratic process: debate, transparence and the ability to demand political accountability.The main conclusion is that there is a contradiction in the use of MBO and the democratic values of debate, transparence and the ability to demand political accountability. MBO has resulted in a lack of debate and transparency and furthermore, it has made it increasingly more difficult to demand political accountability..

Background: An evaluation of analysts´ forecasting ability is interesting since their estimates constitute an important part in stock valuation and investment decisions. The recent years´ development in the stock market has lead to criticism of analysts? deficient forecasts. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate analysts´ forecasting ability concerning companies quoted at Stockholmsbörsen between 1987 and 2002. We also intend to discuss possible explanations for analysts? behavior in case of deficient accuracy.

The purpose of this literature review was to demonstrate the results of recent studies of the nurses ability to interpret younger childrens (0-6 years of age) experiences of pain in the postoperative stage. There is a lack of knowledge concerning young childrens ability to express themselves verbally and the nurse has to rely upon the parents knowledge about the child. Consequently, the teamwork between the nurse and the parents is of great importance in the care of the younger child. Therefore we intend to illuminate this aspect in this paper. This study aims to nurses of all categories, since patients with lack of verbal communication are frequently occurring.

Previous research has indicated that intellectual disabilities and parenting is not socially accepted and compulsory care of children often occurs in families where one or both parents have an intellectual disability. This study aims to, thru a document analysis, investigate ideas and representations of parents with intellectual disabilities that emerge in Swedish legal cases. The legal cases is about children who are taken care of according to LVU § 2, where one or both parents have a intellectual disability. The results of the study revealed that people with intellectual disabilities are seen as not capable of developing parenting ability, in some cases aroused concerns about parenting during pregnancy, these suggesting stereotypes of parents with intellectual disabilities. Of the documents reveals that social workers word overrides in the decision-making, this leads to a position of power where the parents are at a disadvantage..

Title: Inflation and Investments, with Focus on Inflation-linked Bonds.Investors face many types of risks when allocating assets in a portfolio, e.g. volatility and inflation risk. Inflation risk will mainly affect investments in the long perspective. This thesis will examine those risks that an investor is commonly exposed to when allocating assets in a portfolio and in particular inflation-linked risk and how to eliminate it. We examine the correlation between different assets and inflation to determine the assets? ability to hedge inflation risk.

The Swedish curriculum points out mathematical communication as one of the importantabilities that students need to develop. Previous studies show that students have not been given the right conditions to develop this ability sufficiently. The purpose of this study is to investigate how some Swedish teachers interpret mathematical communication and how the work with this takes place in their classrooms.The investigation consists of qualitative interviews with six teachers in the grades of Fk-3. The interviews have been focused around the teacher's interpretation regarding mathematical communication, how this is reflected in their work in the classroom and also if they see any advantages or difficulties in working with mathematical communication with their pupils.The result of the study shows that the teachers are well aware of the importance of communication and they have a will and an intention to let the pupils communicate mathematically. Mathematical communication is emphasized mainly as important for the pupil's learning and understanding.

That we have a great need to be encouraged is coated in a variety of motivational theories. Despite our awareness of this need, studies show that Swedish employees feel a lack of encouragement in the workplace. The purpose of this report is to examine the factors that affect our ability to give others encouragement.Empirical data were collected through questionnaires from 91 people in the workplace. Correlation between the experience of giving and receiving encouragement, self-image, outlook on mankind and stress in the workplace are examined using a linear Multiple Regression Analysis. Correlation between the experience of giving and receiving encouragement is examined using Pearsons test of correlation.The results show that there is no significant correlation between the experience of giving and receiving encouragement, self-image, outlook on mankind and stress.

ABSTRACTStatistics show that breastfeeding prevalence for Sweden has fallen since the mid 90´s. Studies show that breastfeeding offers health benefits to both mother and child and that the mothers' belief and confidence in their ability to breastfeed is a key factor to having a positive breastfeeding outcome. In 2010, Amningshjälpen in collaboration with Sensus studieförbund, started a nursing course, for mothers-to-be, who wished to breastfeed their babies and its aim was to prepare them for a successful and enjoyable experience.Objective: To examine whether a preparatory breastfeeding course can affect mothers' confidence in their ability to breastfeed and if that ability can affect the breastfeeding outcome when the child reaches four months. A further aim is to investigate the experience of  perceived problems surrounding breastfeeding and what affect these might have on the mothers' confidence in breastfeeding when the child reaches four months.Design/Methods: A quantitative approach with prospective experimental design was used to evaluate the study. The questionnaire Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale Short Form (BSES-SF) was used three times to measure women's trust in lactation.

The aim of the study was to investigate if the Grazemore Decision Support System (DSS) is able to provide a grazing management strategy that gives a high utilisation of grazed grass in milk production in the north of Scandinavia. To do this, a grazing experiment was planed and performed during the summer 2005. Simulations in the DSS were run to get a suggestion of how the cows should graze, grazing calendar 1. Deviations and updates during the season resulted in the simulated grazing calendar 2. During the experiment, the actual milk yield was recorded twice weekly. The difference between actual and predicted milk yield by Grazemore DSS was analysed statistically with regression analysis and the mean square prediction error (MSPE) was estimated.

At Flight and Systems test Saab AB, a post-processing software is used to process GPS data. A new software by the name GrafNav has been purchased and the purpose of this master thesis therefore became, partly to make a judgment regarding GrafNav?s ability to estimate position, velocity and accuracy, partly to if needed improve the estimate and finally find one or several methods to estimate the position and velocity accuracy. The judgment of GrafNav was performed partly by a comparison to the former post-processing software (PNAV) and partly by a comparison to the airplane?s inertial navigation system (INS).

The aim of the study was to investigate how Parkinson?sdisease affects the individual?s ability to give feedback in face to faceinteraction with a significant other and how this affects the conversationalinteraction. The study applied a qualitative approach, using ConversationAnalysis and Activity based communication analysis with altogether fourdyads. The results showed that Parkinson?s disease may have an effect onthe ability to give feedback, shown in an atypical pattern of feedbackpreventing the fulfillment of individual goals in the interaction.

Diabetes mellitus type 2 and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) are two of the most common diseases in the world and the amount are increasing. The treatments of these diseases are self care and a change of lifestyle. For this to be successful there is a need for the person to have knowledge about the diseases and a motivation for making changes in his or her lifestyle. Most of this information is given by the district nurse at the health centre. It is important to get a better knowledge of these persons experiences and how they used the information given to them.

The aim of this study was to investigate people?s ability to detect deception and if variables such as birth order, personality and suspiciousness affect this ability. The study was conducted at Växjö University with students as participants (n = 278). A film of two people arguing both for and against their own personal opinions was constructed and participants assessed credibility on a categorical scale (Honest/Dishonest). Neither birth order nor level of suspiciousness revealed significant differences as pertains to credibility attribution.

The aim of this study is to examine educationalists experiences of play as an educational toolin the work to promote the social development in children with autism.The relevant issue, for this study, is: In what way does an educationalist work with play withchildren with autism? What are the results of using play in the educational work? What arethe possibilities and what are the obstacles in using play in educational work?This study has been carried out as a study of literature in the field and qualitative interviewswith five educationalists that are working in a mid Swedish county.The result of the study shows that educationalists have a positive view of using play in theirwork and are using play in varying ways in their everyday work. Using play as a method intheir work always happens according to the ability and condition of the child. They (theeducationalists) think that play has great opportunity and advance as a method and gives thechildren joy, increase their sense of ability, the base for the social participation in play, andthe development of social skills.There is a certain hesitation among educationalists when it comes to using play as a methodfor children with autism , but the most of the educationalists consider play as promoting thesocial development although the development always will happen at the pace(rate)of thechild..

Prior research on the ability of financial ratios to predict bankruptcies has shown a significant difference between the companies that went into bankruptcy and those that survived. This paper investigates whether there is a difference in the prediction ability of financial ratios during the last financial crisis compared to relatively normal macroeconomic environments in which most previous studies have been conducted. We use univariate analysis to compare companies that went into bankruptcy during 2010 and 2011 with companies that remained active. Our dataset consists of 51 failed companies that are matched with 102 companies that remained active. All companies were Swedish limited companies with more than 50 employees and the comparison is made with 26 financial ratios.