Foreseeing future changes in economic activity is of up most importance to a wide array of actors. The time lag in the presentation of official GDP statistics means that to somewhat accurately capture a tendency of where the business cycle is heading one need turn to qualitative sentiment indicators such as Purchasing Managers? Index (PMI) and official sentiment indicators for valuable clues. This thesis uses in-sample and out-of-sample methods to evaluate how well PMI and official Business Tendency Surveys (BTS) in Sweden and Denmark fair against the year-on-year growth rate of industrial production. Moreover, various Swedish regional sentiment indicators get examined and a case study of the indicator for the Öresund region is performed.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union a lot of hope has been put on civil society to help develop Russia into a more democratic society. This study explores the constructive elements in the relationship between civil society and the state in Russia, and how this enables the work toward political development. By using Julie Fishers theory about political development and organisational autonomy I discuss the varying and often complex ways in which civil society and the state interacts. These are often not mentioned in the liberal tradition, which believes that civil society's most important democratic function is to act as a watchdog for the state.There is very limited political space for NGO's in authoritative Russia. The existing oppositional NGO's are important for the political development, but they are few and their impacts on society are limited.

The purpose with the report is to show that it is possible to design a class-D amplifier, using a programmable FPGA mounted on a developing card from Xess and a H-bridge. The FPGA was programmed in VHDL which is the language the software from Xilinx use to implement a logical function into the FPGA The logical function corresponds to a modeling of the music signal and the modeling can be described as a comparator which compare the music signal with a triangle wave and as a out signal produce a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal. The report is also a review and evaluating of two different modulating technologies, AD- modeling and BD-modeling. A detailed part about how the H-bridge was designed and how it works. The result of this project is a working audio amplifier to a significant lower price than the products in todays market..

The aim of the study is to describe and analyze bank officials' views about what auditors will do. The main motivation comes from the government?s proposals that the audit duty will be abolished and it can lead to that bank officials in a bigger extent can influence the audit?s formulation. It can also lead to that a consumer audit becomes reality. The study covers a sample of 302 bank officials where 153 have participated through a survey questionnaire.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to find out what support students of Swedish for Immigrants (sfi) think they get from the public library during their study of the Swedish language. One important aspect in this essay is to examine whether the library can meet the need of Swedish-speaking meeting places where the sfi-students can practise their new language. The method used in this study is qualitative interviews. Nine sfi-students, one sfiteacher and one librarian have been interviewed. A sociocultural perspective on learning has served as a theoretical starting point.

This thesis was performed at SverigeGrepen AB. SverigeGrepen is a company that hasone product on the market; a manure fork that is designed to be used for mucking inshavings or peat. The aim of this thesis was to develop a new manure fork that isadapted to be used in straw.The development started with a pilot study where experience of mucking wascollected to be able to understand what and why certain characteristics are importantfor the function and use of the manure fork.A basic concept was developed where the main function was fulfilled, which meantthat a separation between dung and straw could be performed in a way that wasbeneficial for the user.The work resulted in four concepts of how a manure fork could be used in the strawthat can be designed and constructed. The conclusion that the work gave was that allconcepts met the main requirements required by a manure fork to use in straw.However, concept four provides a good visual impression, while its benefits areassumed to be important qualities..

This Master thesis was written for Lantmännen Agroetanol in Norrköping concerning the layout of their finished goods inventory and unloading of feed after introducing a new product mix. Lantmännen Agroetanol has two production lines which produces feed. Both lines lead to six silos, used as inventory of finished goods. The feed from the two production lines differ in terms of quality, where as Lantmännen Agroetanol wants to separate their finished inventory in order to charge a higher price, by selling the better product as a premium. With two different feed products the yearly revenue is expected to increase which motivates a research about the current capabilities and necessary changes to be made in the factory.

The purpose of this paper was to identify the elements and the alloys that five objects found in Birka consist of and to examine whether there are any significant differences between the presumably imported and domestic objects. The material was analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) which was equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) in order to identify the elements that are present and the alloys that the objects are made of. Then the SEM results were compared with the results of previous analyzes that have been performed on finds from Birka in order to investigate how the objects differ in elemental composition and to find out if there are any significant differences between them. The results showed that the objects? content of the elements analyzed varies as the copper alloys the objects are made of.

Stockholms vattenskärning AB in Kungsängen has through the acquisition of a company begun to design and produce aircraft heaters whose origin is early 1970s which follows a high inefficiency in terms of energy consumption and size.The aircraft heater, which is sold worldwide, serves its purpose for customer satisfaction and has done so ever since it was developed in the 70s.Stockholms vattenskärning AB is now investigating the possibility in making the aircraft heaters more efficient, both in terms of energy consumption but also on a more efficient design with the belief that it would lead them to an edge in the market. The aircraft heater consists of several main components whose function altogether is to keep passenger aircrafts warm while they are on the ground.This project has been limited to the further development of the heat exchanger package which accounts for the conversion of the hot medium to the fresh air being carried in to the aircraft cabin. Work has been divided into different phases in order to create a better understanding of the project range and to make it easier to divide the various elements in the time available, 10 weeks. These phases are literature review, situation analysis, concept generation, CAD, concept comparison and writing reports.After the initial literature review was made, a fundamental theory was written which is essential in understanding the remaining parts of the project.With the theoretical part as support, measurements and calculations were made on the current heat exchange package in a situation analysis to ensure its operation and efficiency.In the concept generation phase, the collected facts from the literature review was used as the basis for creating a matrix. The purpose of the matrix was to indicate the two most suitable types of heat exchangers to develop four new concepts out of.In the CAD phase the four concepts was drawn up and then described with text and images.The last phase is the concept comparison where a concept selection matrix is used to function as a decision basis for further production at Stockholms vattenskärning AB. The four concepts have been developed based on the current heat exchanger and is gradually changed into a design of a cross-flow heat exchanger constructed out of stainless sections. The purpose of this is to have gradual upgrading of the heat exchanger as an option, in order not to saturate the market..

In 2007 the Swedish government appointed a commission of inquiry with the task to submit a proposal of reduction in the requirement of a minimum legal capital for private limited liability companies. The commission of inquiry?s main proposal involved a reduction to SEK 50,000 compared to the prevailing SEK 100,000. Following a complementary proposal from the Justice Department suggesting a reduction to SEK 1, this paper aims at providing an understanding of the function and purpose of a minimum legal capital and the consequences that follows from an abolition of the statutory capital requirement. The thesis concludes that the legal capital?s main purpose is that of a standard contract internalizing the shareholder?s risk in business.

The advantage and the possibility of keeping track of a number of vehicles to make work practice more effective and smooth is today a favorable choice for Visual Units Logistics customers. We?ve been evaluating the software and trying to take it one step further and letting not only the individual user, but maybe, the company as a whole benefit from its advantages. This has been done by using methods like letting ourselves get to know the software, user case studies, workplace studies, interviews and future workshops. This resulted in a prototype introducing a new function designed with all collected data in mind trying to make the software, Visual Units Logistics, even more effective for the every day work practice of the user.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine what role the new city library in Halmstad has for its users. The questions posed in this study are: What do the users actually do at the library? What roles are the most significant according to the users? Have the politicians succeeded in their intention of realizing a modern library according to the users? The theoretical starting point is Andersson?s and Skot-Hansen?s theory of four different roles of public libraries. In order to extend the model we added a fifth function; the one of aesthetical experience.

Background: The majority of nurses experience work relatedstress, which can lead to a negative impact on patient care. Thestress can be handled by coping strategies. Aim: To illuminatecoping strategies among nurses experiencing work relatedstress. Method: The study has been accomplished as aliterature study, with a systematic review of scientific articles.Findings: Following coping strategies appeared: problemsolving, long-term strategies, passive strategies, leisurestrategies, social support and mental strategies. Conclusion:Awareness of coping strategies for dealing with work relatedstress, can lead to improvement in patient care..

Heart failure is a condition where the heart is incapable of providing adequate blood supply to different organs in the body. The underlying causes of heart failure is some kind of disorder in the heart function, and require careful diagnostics. The basic symptoms that arise from heart failure is difficulty in breathing, that aggravate when lying down, and fatigue. The patients? symptoms and impaired quality of life can be in different stages depending on the severity of the heart failure.

This thesis is largely about museums and their role and development in and for society. With a field/case study of the District Six Museum in Cape Town, we try to encapsulate a modern function for museums within a context of 1) the current worldwide discussion on museums and their future, and 2) the development of a new democratic nation in South Africa, and museums possible role in that process. Through analysis of interviews made with concerned people within and outside the District Six museum weintend to get a picture of the views on this particular museum and its role and function, for its community and society at large, plus for other museums, as a possible role model. We find that this museum might be close to a type of museum that has been asked for by museologists and others in recent times..