According to many scholars America's soft power is in decline, a power resource whose importance has been increasing in world politics. This makes it interesting to examine if there is a difference between how Democratic and Republican administrations wield their soft power.This thesis is a hypothesis-testing study and the purpose is to test the hypothesis that Democratic administrations, to a greater extent than Republican, can create, utilize and defend soft power. My thesis is based on Joseph Nye's theory of soft power and the focus of this study is the aspects of the foreign policy resources. In order to measure this concept I have made my own operationalization where five different indicators serve as my guidance. I use the method of least likely-cases to select and motivate the administrations being tested, which gives me a comparative study of the Democratic administrations of Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton and the Republican administration of George H.

In the pilot plant at Hammarby Sjöstad, Sjöstadsverket, several new methods are tested in order to achieve a good use of resources. When a new technique is considered it is often the performance of the technique itself, under given conditions, that is evaluated. However, in order to evaluate the overall function the whole picture is needed. With a system analysis it becomes possible to make a comparison where all the positive aspects are put up against the negative ones, for the technique itself as well as its requirements. In this way the influence that minor components have on an entire system can be considered.This report presents a system analysis of an anaerobic membrane reactor (MBR) with a VSEP-membrane (Vibratory Shear Enhanced Process).

The purpose of this project was to design an adjustable gutter bracket for Lindab Profil AB. Lindab currently manufacture a gutter bracket that is adjustable in angle, however, this model has some drawbacks.  One of it´s shortcomings is that it is somewhat difficult for the customer to mount.  Another problem with Lindab?s current model is that the design makes manufacturing unnecessarily complex. The new gutter bracket, that we have constructed, does not have these problems. It is adjustable for different roof pitches.

An information system is something that evolves over time to enhance the company that is using it. The technology for building an information system is also evolving. New methods and new programming languages make system development easier. As new technology breaks ground and the demands of a company?s information system grow, the company will sooner or later get to a point where a change in the base of the system is necessary.

BACKGROUND: Mental disorders amongst students, has increased, and foremost amongst girls. One way to regulate their emotions, is by deliberate self-harm. Due to their profession, school nurses have the ability to detect self-harm amongst students, and can therefor give them a good professional support. AIM: The aim of this study is to describe the school nurse's experience of deliberate self-harm amongst students. METHOD: The study is based on thirteen interviews with school nurses, via e-mail.

It is important to understand the process of appraisal of a business in order to establish its value. The purpose of our thesis is to establish which methods and models are used when evaluating a business and investigate the factors that may affect the value and price tag of a business. We have used a qualitative approach by conducting both indepth interviews and a survey as well as reading literature within the field. The main conslusion in our findings is that the common practice of discounted cash flow is widely used when bestowing a monetary value for a business, and in order to raise the value a well established customer relationship was the single most important factor. As far as lowering the value, the answers were of such a wide spread that a single factor could not be attributed.

The goal with the project was to make the graphic for Djungeltrumman.se´s upcomingwebb-TV. Djungeltrumman.se is a clubguide on the internet and as a magazine.Their target group is people in the age between 18-34 with an interest for culture and nightlife that lives in a city where Djungeltrumman.se is active. The purpose of the project was to make a graphical frame that had the feelling ofDjungeltrumman.se. The feeling should capture the interest of the target group and make them care more for Djungeltrumman.se.The graphics will contain an intro, information frames and presentations for the different parts in the program. In this project I focused on making the intro for the program.

Studiens syfte är att beskriva, tolka och analysera betydelsen av vägledning i den arbetslivsinriktade rehabiliteringen, utifrån ett deltagar- och tjänstemannaperspektiv. För att få svar på detta gjorde vi en kvalitativ intervju med sex personer, tre deltagare och tre tjänstemän på en Arbetsförmedling i en medelstor kommun i södra Sverige. Vi har undersökt vägledningens betydelse vid Arbetsförmedlingens nya program Arbetslivsintroduktion.Vi har valt att använda oss av den kvalitativa metoden i vår undersökning eftersom vår avsikt var att få en djupare kunskap inom det specifika området och för att få tillgång till personliga berättelser genom intervjuer. Med utgångspunkt från intervjuerna har en analys gjorts om deltagarnas och tjänstemännens behov och perspektiv på vägledningens betydelse inom den arbetslivsinriktade rehabiliteringen.Resultatet visar att två av deltagarna inte upplever någon särskild vägledning inom programmet, medan en av deltagarna ser samtalen med handläggaren som upplyftande, positiva och i viss mån vägledande. Uppfattningen som tjänstemännen har om vägledning är att det är svårt att hinna med att utöva professionell vägledning den första tiden i programmet.

The first aim of this thesis is to descriptively identify and chart the activities of the strategic intelligence and environmental scanning that take place at the regional collaboration network Regionförbundet Örebro. This identification is essential in reaching the comprehensive and primary aim of the thesis: to discuss, through normative discourse, what the options of improvement are and in which ways systematic operations can be integrating parts in the organization. In order to offer guidance of development from the perspectives of environmental scanning, the question at issue has emanated from activities concerning the present methods of working at Regionförbundet Örebro.During the creation of this thesis, several interviews have been made with people who are regarded to be key roles within the regional collaboration network. An analysis has been made, based on governing documents and answers from the interviews, where possible improvements of the business have been identified. The inferences become parts of a greater potential of amelioration since they are presented as active solutions and proposals that can be directly adaptable to the organization.Our proposals of improvements/ameliorations are constituted by a number of concrete/explicit points such as: a wider public information supply and an introduction of several annual routines and methods..

The aim of this study is to investigate how chemistry teachers at secondary school anduniversities work with learning strategies and models of perception. This thesis leans on theworks of Lev Vygotskij and his likes but also on the theory of conceptual metaphors by GeorgeLakoff and Mark Johnson as a tool to analyze the collected data.The Empirical data that this study is based upon have been collected through semi-structuredinterviews with teachers as primary respondents.The study has resulted in a two practical assignments for secondary school which are builtaround the concept of open assignments. This thesis has also generated a suggestion for a newstructure of the bachelor programme in chemistry at KTH..

The common literature about strategic alliances offers a very fragmented picture. This thesis gives a theoretical overview on strategic alliances and builds the basis for the following examination of the different dimensions most strategic alliances have. The examination of the different dimensions is the crucial point of this thesis. Here the reader gets a detailed insight into the different dimensions and the implications they have on the design of a particular strategic alliance. This examination leads in the end to a more differentiated view on strategic alliances and the insight that no simple models exist, which give a sufficient basis for decision-making and understanding strategic alliances, today.

Our companion animals can, with or without symptoms, carry infectious agents which have a potential to induce diseases in man, so called zoonoses. An immune compromised person has an increased risk of becoming infected by various agents, and thus also has an increased risk to become infected by one?s own companion animals. A study was carried out within the veterinary program at SLU, Sweden, based on a questionnaire answered by 31 physicians, 31 veterinarians and interviews of 30 immune compromised persons in Sweden. The study investigated the following questions: Which zoonoses do physicians and veterinarians consider to be the most important to inform immunecompromised persons about? How are immunecompromised persons being informed by their physicians about the risk of catching zoonoses from their companion animals? How are the owners of zoonosis-infected animals being informed by their veterinarians about zoonoses? Does veterinary medicine and human medicine communicate about zoonoses, in order to take the best care of immunecompromised persons in contact with animals? The results of our study imply that: - Physicians and veterinarians differ about which zoonoses immunecompromised persons should be informed about. - Only oral information is passed to immunecompromised persons and animal owners.

This Master?s thesis concerns the public librarian?s professional identity. The complexity of the mandates of the public librarian, and the public library, raises questions on how librarians understand their professional identities. The empirical material consists of qualitative in-depth interviews with librarians. Two theoretical approaches are used in the analysis of the material with a focus on the public librarians? knowledge and professional role.

AbstractMany of the refugees around the world today are children. Some of these children are travelling alone without anyone looking after them. These children flee from their countries to save their lives and as they are children they need special care and protection. This thesis has investigated the protection given to unaccompanied children during the asylum process in the two key instruments in the area: the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The Refugee Convention does not contain any procedural rights and does not specifically acknowledge children, even though they are included in the scope of the Convention.

Alstom Power Sweden AB in Norrköping isexpanding their business in the presentsituation and has implemented aprocedure for reverse engineering as apart of this work. Reverse engineeringat Alstom is an extensive procedurethat is calculated to be performedunder very time demanding conditions.This thesis is a continued exertion ofthe implementation process in order toidentify and describe the mostimportant process steps in purpose to beable to manage and improve theprocess.This thesis was written with twoprimary objectives. The first was todescribe and map out the procedure torecreate technical data of a turbineblade, based on a validation of thereverse engineering process that hasbeen performed at Alstom in Norrköping.The second purpose was to describe thekey factors to achieve successful usageof reverse engineering that have beennoticed in the literature study.The work is based on a literature studyon the subject reverse engineeringwhich produced the theoreticalknowledge of the method to reproducetechnical data to a product. Theliterature study has also led to adescription of reverse engineering froma legal perspective to clarify how farit is allowed to apply the methodaccording to the patent laws. With theliterature study as support and furtherhelp and guidance from individualswithin the reverse engineering unit atAlstom, a complete picture andunderstanding of the process has beenproduced and documented..