The purpose of this thesis is to examine the networks of interlocking directors in the 50 largestSwedish companies on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the years 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005and 2010 and seek explanations for the observed developments.Our findings indicate that the density and concentration of the network has decreased during thefirst ten-year period and stayed constant during the second period. The development of theoverall network is not consistent throughout all corporate groups. Most notablyHandelsbankssfären seems to experience increased density and connectivity whileWallenbergsfären is experiencing the reverse.The changes during the first ten-year period is deemed to come mainly from changes inregulations pertaining to both the opening for international capital investments as well as looserrestrictions on domestic capital investments. These changes have caused decreased concentrationof ownership, as well as the emergence of new owners, which is reflected in the board ofdirectors.During the second ten-year period the changes are more pertaining to the individual boards andboard members, without flowing through into the overall network. Our findings indicate thatthese changes are caused by the increased professionalization of boards and board work, whichhas gained momentum through the creation of the Swedish Corporate Governance Code..

Syftet med uppsatsen är att se vad forskningen om språkängslan säger om vad språklärare kan göra för att skapa en låg nivå av ängslan och därmed ett bättre klimat för språkinlärning i ett kommunikativt klassrum. Uppsatsen är forskningskonsumerande och bygger på tidigare forskning om språkängslan i främmandespråksinlärning.Avstamp tas i det kommunikativa klassrummet, som förespråkas i styrdokumenten för dagens svenska skola, och som bygger på kommunikation. Sedan presenteras olika affektiva faktorer som kan påverka främmandespråksinlärningen i denna kontext. Därifrån belyses vad språkängslan (language anxiety) är samt vilka metoder som använts för att mäta det. Dessutom ges olika perspektiv på relationen mellan språkängslan och främmandespråksinlärning samt vilka konsekvenser språkängslan har för elever i främmandespråksklassrummet.Utifrån forskningen presenteras även en, av författaren till uppsatsen skapad, modell för hur man som språklärare kan minska och hantera elevers språkängslan i främmandespråksklassrummet.

This thesis examines how power is constructed through language use in the Swedish mining policy with the legislative change proposition to enabling uranium mining. The aim is to analyze differences in how the government and municipalities formulate and justify their positions. The study adopts a qualitative case study design and applies Fairlough?s critical discourse analysis. The empirical material consists of a governmental press release and public consultation responses from municipalities.

Children?s utterances have been studied in different languages; however, only a few studies refer to Swedish. The aim of the present study is to describe utterance types, subordinate clauses and utterance length for a group of three and four year old Swedish children without known functional impairments.The study included 29 children, 17 girls and 12 boys, in a larger city in the south-east of Sweden. The children, all native Swedish speakers, were aged 3;0 to 4;11. Sound recordings were made during a playing session with one of the authors in the children?s day care centers.The utterances were divided into the categories elliptical responses, incomplete and partly unintelligible utterances, imitative utterances and independent utterances.

How capital structure influences corporate performance and value has been in the interest of researchers and scholars for more than half a century, but an answer is yet to be found. The main objective of the present paper is to contribute with data for this cause and hopefully help to clarify this mystery. The method that was used was by analyzing the impact of debt on profitability and market valuation through linear regression. The study examined 17 Swedish property companies listed on Nasdaq OMX Large Mid and Small Cap over a 6 year period (2007-2012). The authors found a slightly negative relationship between debt-to-equity and profitability measured by return on equity (ROE) as well as by return on assets (ROA).

Abstract Contemporary cities find themselves today in a fierce competition against other cities over company establishment and in -migration. In this competition, the city?s main objective is to become an attractive site of capital accumulation.  As this happens, the pressure on the vulnerable groups in society increases, leading to a social geographic polarization. I have examined how the shift towards neoliberalism has affected a city on the fringe as Kalmar. How is the postindustrial urban space constructed? I found this important to analyze since it put two important questions in the light: For whom, and for which purpose do we build the city today? My questions have been:v  What are Kalmar municipality?s strategies to develop Kalmar?v  What are the results of this strategy in the urban space?v  What are the consequences of this strategy?The research has been a case study of the city of Kalmar with a qualitative deductive approach where David Harvey?s theories about the city in a capitalist system have been the underpinning structure.

The main purpose of this study was to translate Stuttering Severity Instrument 3 and to evaluate its reliability and validity. Five speech-language pathologists assessed 35 adults who stutter with this assessment tool. Overall the results showed a very high inter- and intrarater reliability. A highly significant correlation between Stuttering Severity Instrument 3 and ratings of severity, made by the speech-language pathologists, strengthen the validityof Stuttering Severity Instrument 3. No correlation was found between the total score of Stuttering Severity Instrument 3 and the self-report measure Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering, whichindicates a lack of social validity in Stuttering Severity Instrument 3.

In this diploma work we present the results from a study of how adult immigrants utilise the services provided by the public library in Biskopsgården, Gothenburg. A survey encompassing 51 library visitors of foreign origin and an interview with two librarians at the library were performed.The results from the survey show that the majority of the informants were male students inages from 26 to 45 years and that they had been living in Sweden for a maximum of five years. 73% of the informants used the library to borrow literature in Swedish, 53% to read newspapers and periodicals in their native language, 43% to borrow literature in their native language and 43% to read newspapers and periodicals in Swedish.These results were compared with two other related studies with which partial correspondencewas found. In addition, related topics such as multicultural librarianship and the psychological aspects of immigration are discussed..

The purpose of this thesis is to look into the knowledge city concept and the preferences and requirements of companies on such a city. Furthermore, suggestions of ideal conditions in a knowledge city are proposed. The thesis has been conducted through a qualitative approach where a deductive procedure has been implemented. In order to examine knowledge cities, Barcelona has sketchily been looked at as an early example of a knowledge city, whereas a more exhaustive observation of Copenhagen was conducted. Since the concept of knowledge cities is a rather new phenomenon, models from several disciplines constitute the theoretical framework.

A change of generations occurs several times during a company?s lifetime. It is a process that requires planning and time. If the current owner wants to keep the company within the family, he has two options; he can either sell the company to a family member, or give the company to the new owner, like a gift. When the owner sells the company, it is common that he accomplishes it to a losing price.

Sedan 2005 är det genom en förordning av Europeiska unionen bestämt att svenska börsnoterade företag ska nedskrivningstesta sin goodwill. Diskonteringsräntan som appliceras vid denna nedskrivningsprövning är av väsentlig betydelse. Vi replikerar delvis en studie av Carlin & Finch (2009) som beräknade teoretiska diskonteringsräntor enligt Capital asset pricing model (CAPM) och jämförde med de diskonteringsräntor som börsnoterade företag i Australien använt i sin redovisning. Carlin & Finch (2009) ansåg att avvikelserna däremellan kunde förklaras genom utövanden som är diskretionära och att opportunistiskt beteende förekommer när företag sätter sin diskonteringsränta. Vi använder ett underlag bestående av Sveriges största börsnoterade företag, de som är noterade på Large Cap- och Mid Cap-listan på Stockholmsbörsen, och studerar hur andelen som redovisat en enligt CAPM avvikande diskonteringsränta förändrats sedan de nya redovisningsreglerna trädde i kraft år 2005 till år 2009.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine how pupils with Swedish as a second language and school librarians perceive the concept of pleasure of reading and the feeling of being a part of society. Our research is based on qualitative interviews with eight students in grades 6-9 and from two different schools. We have also interviewed two school librarians in these two libraries. As a method of analysis, we used phenomenography because it is the informants' perceptions of the phenomenon of pleasure of reading that we investigate.

The present project is a first step towards a new Swedish assessment tool to examine phonological ability in preschool-aged children. The work consisted of developing a word list with words that was considered to reveal a child?s phonological ability and to try out the word list on pre-school children. The reason was to make sure that the words existed in the vocabulary of the children in the chosen ages. A word list consisting of 109 words, which convey relevant phonological information, was created.

The purpose of this study was to examine if there were anychanges in quality in the voices of speech and language pathology studentsafter four years of study at the University of Gothenburg. Recordings oftwenty student voices from the first and eight semesters were evaluatedperceptually by six speech-language pathologists. The parameters judgedwere: vocal fry, glottal attacks, strain, breathiness and resonant voice, usinga scale from 0 to 10. Acoustical measures were made of F0 mean andmedian to detect possible differences between the two recordings. Theresults show a significant decrease in vocal fry, glottal attacks and strain aswell as an increase in resonant voice and a significant decrease in F0 meanand median.

I samhället idag framkommer det allt fler barn som har någon form av språkstörning. Kunskapen bör därför hållas uppdaterad bland logopeder och talpedagoger med flera och att det även finns tillgång till stöd och hjälp för dessa barn. Kommunens översikt över behovet av hjälp är också viktigt för att barnen ska få de bästa möjliga förutsättningarna. Kommunen bör sedan göra det som krävs för att hjälpen för barn med språkstörning ska finnas tillgänglig i kommunen.I denna studie är vårt syfte att se vad det finns för hjälp för barn med språkstörning i olika kommuner och om hjälpen skiljer sig åt beroende på om kommunen är större eller mindre. Den frågeställning vi valt till denna undersökning är: Skiljer sig hjälpen åt för barn med språkstörningar i större respektive mindre kommuner och i så fall varför?Denna studie är kvalitativ och består av en strukturerad intervju.