This study puts emphasis on an international discourse describing how cities frequently compete against each other, and also describing factors that cities should enhance to make themselves more competitive. The discourse in this study has therefore been used to seek understanding how three different municipalities Borlänge, Karlstad and Malmö strive for growth by applying central factors from the discourse on the municipalities strategic documents. What the study shows is that the central factors from the discourse strongly imprints the strategic documents, but the presence of the factors varies between the municipalities and also to what meaning that lies behind the strategic goals..

Given that the oil prices have risen and the environmental regulations has become more stringent, the interest in operating efficiency has increased. The project has investigated the possibility of producing electricity from waste heat generated in the diesel process. One technique to utilize and convert energy into electricity is the ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle). This process is based on the Rankine process (the steam process), the difference from the traditional Rankine process is that instead of water as a working medium, an organic substance is used. The main component used in the process is a evaporator, a turbine, a condenser and a pump.

In this project a simulator has been developed (in C++) with the purpose of illustrating how changes in environmental regulations, tax levels and other policy measures affect the composition of an energy system. The aim of the project was to investigate how energy companies? investment strategies are affected when changes in economic and environmental conditions occur. A standard scenario has been created based on current Swedish conditions, but the user can create new scenarios and set parameters freely. The user is tasked with building power plants to supply the city/region with district heating and electricity during a pre-set number of years. When the simulation is finished the result is graded in the following categories: economy, environment and quality. To evaluate the simulator three scenarios were created (?early 20th century?, ?reduced environmental control? and ?future?) in addition to the standard scenario and these were compared with each other by examining how a select group of power plants perform under the given conditions.

Extended Producer Responsibility (ERP) is a form of product take-back regulation that requires the producers to manage their products at the end of life. By internalising the products? entire life cycle costs into the market price the ultimate objective of such regulations is to reduce the environmental burden from the products. This Master´s thesis seeks to examine if the total life cycle cost of a product actually is borne by the producer, and if not, predict who will then take this cost. This is done by analysing the market for take-back activities in three different categories of products; electrical and electronic equipment, cars and wind power stations.

The aim of this report is to discuss computer security in handheld computers and to find out the appropriate security level that must be implemented to be able to use handheld computers within the Swedish healthcare system. Most healthcare centers are using some kind of electronic journals for their patient´s data today, but there are still a number of clinics that are usingthe old paper-system. On a few places in Sweden the use of handheld computers at the clinics has already started, but in the United States the use of handheld computers in the medical area is already widespread and from this we can see a lot of different situations where it is useful and effective to work with handheld computers. The security demands on patient´s journals are high and regulated in both Swedish law and regulations from the National Swedish Board of Health and Welfare. The law does not have any substantial demands, but states that there should be an adequate security level based on the nature of the information and the costs.

This essay investigates employee buyouts and does so from a number of different perspectives. Employee buyout is a term that describes a way of ending an employment through an agreement where the employee gets a sum of money in exchange of leaving their employment. Technically it is neither a resignation, since the employee gives up the employment in exchange of money, nor a dismissal since the employer does not have legal grounds for dismissing the employee. Employee buyout is not an illegal way to end an employment, as long as it is the result of a mutual agreement between the employer and the employee. In this essay I investigate and analyze employee buyouts in relation to 7 § in the Swedish employment protection act, and also Swedish employment protection in relation to regulations from EU regarding employment protection.

År 2002 tog EU och International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) beslutet att alla noterade företag ska följa de internationella reglerna International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Detta medförde dock att regelverket för de mindre noterade företagen blev alltför komplicerat. Därför beslutade Bokföringsnämnden år 2004, att ändra inriktningen på normgivningen och började arbetet med K-projektet. Här delas företagen in i fyra olika kategorier (K1-K4) beroende på storlek och företagsform. Företagen kan till dess att alla de viktigaste delarna i lagstiftningen trätt i kraft, välja att tillämpa reglerna inom sin aktuella kategori eller fortsätta med nuvarande regler. Denna uppsats inriktar sig på enskilda näringsidkare som tillhör Kategori 1 och har en nettoomsättning på högst 3 miljoner kronor.

This study aims to investigate how small scale manufacturing companies reason around an implementation of a PLM-system, as well as the suitability of these systems compared to larger companies. The study is built on a qualitative method. Initially, secondary data was gathered through books, articles and reports. Primary data was gathered through four interviews. Two interviews were performed with PLM resellers, one interview was performed with a PLM developer, and one interview was performed with a small scale manufacturing company that opted to not implement a PLM-system.The results imply that overall differences between larger and smaller companies exist in regard to the need of PLM systems.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the Swedish relations to Nato and by doing so see on what terms the cooperation is executed and why. However, Sweden is not a member of Nato and is thereby not seen as an ally of the organization but even so Sweden has a close cooperation with Nato. The theories used in this essay is The Rational Actor Model and The Organizational Behaviour Model by Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow. To this a number of additional theorises are used as to complement these two main theories. The aim with these theories is to see which one gives the most satisfying explanation of the Swedish strategy to cooperate with Nato and still not be a member of the alliance or if all theorises are needed.

The purpose of this study is to conduce to the understanding of what challenges the HRdepartmentfaces in the work with the psychosocial work environment in nonprofit organizationsin Sweden. A particular focus in the study is on how the certain features of the nonprofit sectoraffect and tend to contribute to these challenges. In both Swedish and International research thereappears to be a lack of studies that deal with the psychosocial work environment in the nonprofitsector, which is one of the main reasons for this study. International research show, among otherthings, that employees in this sector have a higher degree of work satisfaction than in othersectors. Especially, they value the sense of making a contribution to the society, to get feedbackon their work performance as well as they expect a high level of co-determination.

One of the most common ways to produce heat and electricity in Europe today is by the incineration of waste or combustion of coal. These materials can be very sulfurous and during combustion sulfur dioxide is produced. This is an environmental and health related toxic substance which is why power plants have strict regulations on removing it from the flue gas. Sulfur dioxide is removed from the flue gas by adding a limestone reagent. The sulfur dioxide reacts with the limestone and the synthetic product obtained is ?Flue Gas Desulfurization gypsum?.

Purpose: The purpose with this empirical study is to investigate how many companies have chosen to apply the K2 framework and see why the remaining companies have chosen not to.Methodology: A choice of a quantitative approach has been applied to collect information and create a foundation for the problem. Furthermore a qualitative approach has been selected to cover the remains.Theoretical perspective: This section contains a presentation of the agency theory, the institutional theory, the k-project and a comparison of K2 and the existing regulation.Results: Three out of 143 companies applies BFNAR 2008:1. 13 out of 143 companies use self-generated intangible fixed assets. Out of 29 contacted companies only three know about K2. The 29 companies are from various lines of business within an area.Conclusion: The conclusion of our research is that the majority of the companies did not reject to use the K2 regulations.

In order for a retention of title clause (ROT-clause) to be valid against third parties underSwedish law, the debtor must be prohibited to dispose of the object transferred. Forinstance, the debtor must not be allowed to resell the object without the creditor?spermission or before the object has been fully paid. If the creditor gives consent to thedebtor?s disposal, he loses his right of separation.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the working method partnering has been welcomed in the Swedish construction company NCC and find possible explanations to this. The theoretical background used to understand and discuss our findings mainly builds on value and network dynamics. The empirical study is of a qualitative nature and builds upon 13 semi-structured interviews and the participation in a two-day start up workshop with 21 representatives from involved parties. The study shows that partnering has been positively accepted at NCC. Possible explanations for this can be found in the contrast the method represents to the traditional way of working within the construction industry.

The aim of this masters thesis is to examine what intentions handbooks, laws and regulations have had about children and childrens literature, as we think that they can serve as guiding principles for childrens libraries in Sweden. The questions are: what signals have the childrens libraries got from the documents concerning the view of children and childrens literature during the 20th century? What has the social opinion about children been during the 20th century? How have children been seen during the 20th century? The method we used is a qualitative source analysis of mention above documents seen from a hermeneutical point of view. This analysis is woven together with the social opinion on children during the 20th century. Our results show that the aim of childrens literature before 1945 was a pedagogic and moral one.