The reason for performing an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is to incorporate environmental concern in different kinds of plans and projects. The purpose of such an assessment is to identify and describe direct, indirect and cumulative environmental impacts.Geographical Information System (GIS) is a tool that can be used to combine spatial extension of both sensitive areas and different environmental impacts in a quick and easy way. Because of that, descriptions of environmental impacts and motivation of different standpoints on a specific issue can be more correct and easier to make if GIS is used as a tool.Hence, GIS can contribute to improve the quality of Environmental Impact Assessments. If the benefits of using GIS are to out weight the costs, geographical information of satisfactory detail, actuality and accuracy need to be available at reasonable prices.In this paper, case studies are carried out for three different geographical analyses to investigate the use of GIS as a tool in EIA. From these case studies, more general conclusions about the benefits and limitations of using GIS for Environmental Impact Assessments are also drawn.

Consumer generated advertising is a new phenomenon in the landscape of communication. Tools such as the Internet enable the consumer to create and spread messages for brands without the permission or control of the brand owner. We carried out a quantitative experiment to investigate the effects of how companies choose to handle these activities as well as how expectations of these consumer generated ads differ from traditional advertising. The findings show that strong brands may benefit from these activities if handled the right way and the brand owner adapts it?s reaction to the content of the ad.

The environment became an established issue on the international political agenda after World War 2. How to preserve natural resources became an issue that concerned several powerful participants, affected by changed conditions in the environmental legislation. This paper is a study of the growing environmental work within the multinational Swedish corporations Boliden, IKEA and SAS and how it was affected by the globalization. The material studied is environmentally related information produced by the companies and also interviews with the Environmental Managers. The information provided has been analyzed and compared with well-known opinions of globalization, trying to find out how the process of globalization has affected the handling of environmental work within the companies.

Rural development in Southeast Sweden- three different views and their consequences for the agrarian landscapeThis paper deals with the future for the rural areas of the southeast province of Östergötland, Sweden. The aim is to unveil, analyse and compare different views on rural development and their consequences for the agrarian landscape. Three views are considered, namely that of the different levels of Governments and their departments, that of the farmers and landowners and, finaly, that of the inhabitants of the rural areas.Differences in the views upon rural development is reflected in differences in the ways of thinking of landscapes. Is the open, and actively cultivated, landscape the ideal for all? Who is to decide what needs or ought to be done to achieve certain desired values and/or goals ? and who pays for it? The one thing that is, and should be, clear from the beginning is that all development, whether positive or negative in an area, bears consequences for the landscape.

The telecom and the IT-industry are converging, which creates new possibilities and threats for both existing mobile handset vendors and new entrants originating from the IT-industry. The purpose of this thesis is to explain how IT-players? entrance in the mobile handset industry affects the industry in regards of key success factors and value chain structure. This study has used dynamic theories to describe the mobile handset industry. The theories have helped us in understanding the characteristics and drivers of the industry and thereafter to identify the key success factors.

Background: Corporate Responsibility is not a new concept however in recent times more companies are starting to use different kinds of responsibility disclosures. These disclosures are voluntary and corporations may use them in the way they find suits them best. There is a lot of research in this field and there is no single explanation for what Corporate Responsibility is and how corporations should relate to it.Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between the controlling owners of corporations and CSR disclosure.Method: We use a content analysis and a survey study to examine the relationship between corporate controlling owners and the CSR disclosure.Conclusions: Our results show that controlling owners have little effect on the different dimensions of CSR disclosure. We have however found some differences between the different owner categories where some categories are found to use CSR disclosure to a greater extent..

Sahlgrenska Academyat University of GothenburgDepartment of Internal Medicine and Clinical NutritionAbstractTitle: A vegetarian diet, a possible treatment complement for relief of symptoms ofrheumatoid arthritis? A systematic review.Author: Alexandra Ahlsén and Caroline ForsbergSupervisor: Mette AxelsenExaminer: Anna WinkvistProgramme: Dietician study programme, 180/240 ECTSType of paper: Examination paper, 15 hpDate: May 22, 2012Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic remitting polyarthritis that is relapsing.Symptoms are inflammation of the joints with pain, stiffness and degradation of joint tissue.In some cases, also other parts of the body are involved. The treatment consists ofmedications to reduce pain, inflammation and degradation of joint tissue. Today, the offerednutritional treatment is primarily focused on meeting energy requirements and nutrient needs.The diet has also been discussed as symptomatic treatment, and one of the factors believed toinfluence the symptoms is meat.Objective: To assess the evidence as to whether a vegetarian diet affects the symptoms ofrheumatoid arthritis, and if so, to suggest how it can be implemented in practical dieteticswork.Search strategy The databases used in the literature search was PubMed, Scopus, and AMED.The search words used were: "rheumatiod arthritis", "vegetarian", "vegan", "diet", "meat" and"animal protein".Selection criteria: Studies investigating a vegetarian diet on the symptoms of RA wereincluded. Only RCT, clinical trial, controlled clinical trial, human studies and original articlesin English or Swedish were included.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the democratization process in Kurdistan on the basis of consolidation democracy with focus on arenas defined by Linz and Stepan (1997), namely economic, political, legal, civil society and arenas of state bureaucracy. Furthermore, I intend to explain Kurdistan?s road toward democratization in Kurdistan from 1991 until today, with a focus on the years 2003-2012. The main results are that Kurdistan has developed conditions that support a future consolidation of democracy. However, there are weaknesses in the economic situation, rule of law and the arena of bureaucracy.

Approximately 60 million cubic meters of round wood are transported every year with trucks in Sweden and stand for 15 % of all truck transportation in the country. The big amount that is transported results in many haulage companies works in different parts of the country with different conditions to get a good flow on their transports. Today the transport pricing is very general and the payment consists of the unit round wood they are transporting and the distance of the transport. The purpose of this study were, from the freighter and the haulage company?s perspective, try to find ways to change the today applied transport pricing to more differentiated and compare them to historic payment of transportation.

Goal: To describe which evaluation method is used by Swedish retailers to assess a potential retail location and to describe to what extent the retail brand effects this strategic decision. Design: Analysis of ten interviews with companies within five retail sectors in Sweden. Main study: Indication of what methods are used to evaluate a location and how a company's retail brand affects the decision. Results: Retailers use a mix of theoretical methods to evaluate the location attributes and possible profit. Most common among mixtures was an application of the analog method, residual method or the checklist method in combination with a financial assessment.

This thesis focuses on the testing activities at the stages of development and change regardingintegration brokers. The study aimed to examine the overall challenges that exist regarding thetesting activities within this context, and the thoughts towards the development method testdrivendevelopment (TDD). TDD emphasizes high level of test coverage and where the testprocess is well integrated with the development process. To seek answers to our question weapplied qualitative interviews with companies and respondents to try to understand the globalchallenges that are related to this work and processes. The main conclusions presented in thisstudy is that the overall challenges are involving and educating project participants in the testingprocess activities and the contributory effect test have on the end product.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the Swedish industry- and craftmanship trade, specifically the relationship between effort and reward and how it affects the meaningfulness during labour hours. Also, what are the possible effects on production efficiency as a whole? Discussed and analyzed through empirics and previous research.38 workers filled out a survey and two interviews were conducted to get a more analytic depth to the data.The results showed that there is little to no reward for high effort during labour hours on the evaluated workplaces, combined with low commitment and meaningfullness. My conclusions are that more ways of effort-based rewards would likely have a positive effect on meaningfulness and thereby the production as a whole. I also show that the theses of Karl Marx are still plausible and relevant in modern day industrial- and craftsmanship trades in capitalist countries..

In this paper I study how the repeal of the Swedish wealth tax (1 of January 2007) has affected people´s labour supply behaviour. This particular issue is relevant because it may help us understand some of the effects of the earnings tax changes that have taken place in Sweden. Accoring to standard economic theory a repealed wealth tax is similar to an income effect for the persons who previously paid the tax. That means that they theoretically will want to consume more leisure, that is decrease their labour supply. The method I am using to test this hypothesis is a difference-in-difference approach where the treatment group consists of persons who previously paid the tax and the control group of comparable persons who did not pay the tax.

The purpose of this study was to examine if there was a relation between birth order, gender and locus of control. There where 162 participants in the study, 44 men, 115 women. Birth order was coded into three levels. There where no significant differences between birth order and locus of control. The result showed that female participants where more external when it came to locus of control.

Many scientists agree that phytoestrogens could have an effect on the reproduction of an animal. The question is now why and what mechanisms that play an important role. This paper has been focusing on the estrus behavior of gilts by use of a behavioral study. Some of the gilts were given additional feed with the phytoestrogen genistein which commonly occurs in the feed as a part of soybean products. Blood samples were collected and analyzed for progesterone and estradiol concentrations.